The Way of the Sword and the Shinobi
by Heavenhawk
Summary: Naruto is being chased by a mob and is saved a mysterious swordman. Who is this man and what does it mean for Naruto? Pairings NarutoXHinata maybe other paring later on
1. Naruto's Savior

Chapter 1

Disclaminer: I do not own Naruto or Ruronin Kenshin

A boy with shocking blue eyes, blonde hair and whisker marks on his face was silently crying in a small and dark alley, just out of the view of people walking down the street. He had recently been kicked out of the orphanage he had been staying at just for asking for more food. The carekeeper had exploded on him, telling him he had gotten enough to eat and should be grateful that he had even got the food he had gotten, which was a stale piece of bread and a rotting bannana. The carekeeper had promptly thrown him outside telling him to go away and if he had ever come back again, they would report him for tresspassing. So he was stuck wondering the streets with many people throwing glares at him. Some had even thrown rocks and left several bruises on his body. He was rubbing his bruises when he heard shouts to "Find the Demon and to finish him off." He stood up as quickly as his weakened body could and ran in the opposite direction from where the voices were coming from. Unfortnately for him, one of the crowd member had seen him run out of the alley and proceeded to rally everyone to give chase. The chase ran by a solitary man who was wearing a bamboo hat, carrying a sword and had hand-woven basket of his back that had several items inside, including an umbrella. The man's eyes followed the boy and had made brief contact with the boy's eyes. They showed fear and pain but the one that had stood out was sadness. He watched the boy run by followed by the mob close behind yelling "Demon" and other insults. He stood in the same spot for several more seconds before continuing his path before slowing to a stop again and looking behind to where the boy and the mob had gone.

**Several minutes later, in a dead end alley**

The boy was scrambling around trying to climb the wall that was blocking the alley. He gave up and trying to climb the wall and turned around to see that his only escape route was blocked by a approaching wall of angry looking people. He screamed out to not to hurt then but he was only answered with a hail of rocks, bottles and dirt.

"Well, did you stop when you killed my wife, demon? Did you stop when you wrecked havoc across our lands and killed thousands of innocent people? Tonight, you pay for your crimes, Kyubbi." The man pulled out a kunai and approached the boy and brought his hand down upon the boy's head.

The boy closed his eyes knowing he was going to die. He waited for several second and when he didn't feel anything, he had opened up his eyes again and saw the man who he had run by earlier had his hand wrapped around the wrist of his would-be killer. "I suggest you drop the weapon if you don't want to have your arm broken in half." The stranger applied more pressure to the man's wrist and the kunai was dropped. The stranger then with a single fluid motion threw the assailant back to the crowd where he was caught before he hit the ground. The man had picked himself up again and pointed an accussing finger at the stranger.

"Why are you helping the demon, stranger?"

"Because I don't see a demon. What I see is a malnourished young boy that is being chased by a mob full of fools.", said the stranger.

"Well, I guess that is too bad. I guess we will have to kill you first and then we can kill the demon." And he motioned the crowd to move closer which had attracted the attention of several drunk chunnin and jounin that had heard the noise and came to investigate. One that wasn't fully drunk came over to the crowd and asked what was happening. One of the crowd members told of what was happening and the ninja promptly called his friends over to deal with the problem. They pushed their way to the front of the crowd where they saw the stranger standing in front the demon child, preventing anyone from approaching it.

The ninja that was leading the group seeing that the stranger was only armed with a sword and deduced that he wasn't a ninja thought to himself. _It seems that this fool thinks he can defend this boy with a sword against us ninja and a mob...he will die along with the boy. _He pulled out several kunais out of his pockets while his drunk friends did the same. They all threw their kunais at once expecting the swordman not to be able to protect himself and the demon at once. The swordman quickly pulled the umbrella out of his pack and opened it, spinning it around deflecting all of the kunais and dropping them to the ground. The ninja present all gritted their teeth and started to pull more kunais present to take out the man. They stopped in their tracks when the man had made eye contact with them and they instantly froze up. They saw the swordman's eyes were gleaming red and they instantly felt like runnning away but their bodies would not respond. The man put his pack down on the ground and slowly approached them with his sword in hand. The jounin who had led them in had managed to broke out of the man's freezing glare and rushed the swordman, hoping to stab him and finish him off. Unfornately, that was his last move when he heard a sword being unsheated and a flash of metal. Next thing he knew was his vision was being split into two before he split apart and fell into two piles of flesh and blood.

The swordman turned his gaze toward the rest of the crowd and asked in a deep voice, "Who else wants to come forward?" The rest of the mob had along with the ninja made a mad rush to escape from the alleyway but everyone was gone, one of the ninja had stayed back and said, "There will be blood to be payed. Remember that swordman." And he dashed off into the night.

The swordman resheated his sword and approached the boy, who was huddled in fear at what the man had just done. The swordman extended his hand out and the boy tenatively took the hand. The man hoisted him up and looked at the boy carefully. He saw that the boy was severly underfed, the clothes on his body were rags that were sewed together and had many small cuts on his body. The swordman stood up and moitioned for the boy to follow him. The boy followed him obidiently. He followed closely behind almost clinginh on to the swordman's legs and followed him into a resteraunt that was still opened at that time. He montioned for the boy to sit down on a chair next to him. The boy sat down and the swordman had ordered two bowls of ramen. They both waited silently and when the food had come, the swordman had started to eat but the boy just looked confusedly at the bowl. The swordman took note of this and motioned to the boy that the food was his to eat and the boy started to eat it slowly, eyes darting around in fear that someone would take his food away. The moment that food touched his lips though he felt at ease and quickly finished the bowl. The swordman had soon finished his own bowl, he bowed and said thank you to the waitress and left money on the counter. They both stood up to leave and the instant they were outside, the swordman was surrounded by several Anbu with swords to his neck.

"You are put under arrest for the murder of a Konoha Ninja. You are to come with us to await trial with our Hokage.", said an eagle-masked Anbu.

"I see. I will do that under one condition." He motioned with his eyes to the the boy. "He comes with me.", said the swordman with a calm voice.

"You are not in any condition to be bargining with us.", replied the eagle-masked Anbu.

"And your citizens have no right to attack and innocent young boy, who will be attacked again the instant I leave. Once again, I ask that the boy comes with me.", he countered with the same calm voice.

"Fine." The eagle-masked Anbi motioned for one of his subordinate to pick up the boy. The Anbu picked up the boy, who struggled against his holder but when he caught sight of the swordman's eyes, he stopped knowing he would be safe. The Anbu poofed away with the swordman and the boy in tow and they appeared in the Hokage's office. The Hokage dismissed the Anbu and they poofed away again.

The young boy ran toward the Hokage saying, "Ojji-sama!" and he was swept up into a hug by the old leader. The swordman gave a small smile at the scene before returning his stoic face. The Hokage put down the young boy and looked at the swordman with analyzing eyes for several seconds. "My name is Sarutobi, the 3rd Hokage. So you are the young man that saved this boy?"

"Well, I would hardly call myself young..."

"Are you kidding me? You look like you are in your early teens...", replied the old leader.

"Actually, I am in my early twenties. A lot of people tend to mess up my age becasue of how I look. I would like to know the name of the young boy that I have saved, though."

Sarutobi looked at the young boy, who had fallen asleep on the couch which he had sitted himself on. "His name is Naruto Uzumaki."

"Okay, now that I know his name, why in the world were your citizens and also several of your ninja attacking this boy?"

The old Hokage looked at him sadly and said, "It is becasue he contains a demon inside him." The swordman made to say something but was cut off. "Don't say anything until I have finished his story." The swordman nooded in response. "About 4 years ago, the nine-tailed demon fox, Kyubbi attacked our village. We battled it for days, preventing it from reaching our village. When all hope was lost, the Foruth Hokage appeared on the battlefield where he had summoned up his summon, Gamabunta and charged the demon. They clashed for a few seconds when the Fourth Hokage did a forbidden kinjutsu which defeated the nine-tailed fox but also sacrificed his life. But something of that power could not to killed or sealed into inanimate objects so he sealed it into a newborn baby. That baby is the boy you see slepping before you."

"But that doesn't explain why this boy is being hunted like an animal."

"After the 4th was dead, I was reinstated as the Hokage and after a brutal meeting with the council head, I had passed a law that would prevent the older generation from telling the truth of that night to any of the younger generation, as there was much anger toward this boy and was he had done to the Fourth.", said the Third Hokage.

"I see. I was wondering, do you have a picture of this Fourth Hokage?"

The 3rd Hokage was perplexed by the question but guided the swordman into a side room in the office. Above a small shrine, there were pictures of all of the previous Hokages. The Third pointed at the one that was the Fourth and the swordman looked at it before saying, "That boy is the son of the Fourth Hokage, is he not?"

The 3rd Hokage was taken completly taken by suprise by the swordman's question that he couldn't properly string together his words. He tried to stutter out words but was unable too.

"Hmm, looking at the expression on your face and your inability to say anything, I would assume I have hit the nail of the head. But why keep a secret of th true identity of the boy?" said the swordman.

"It is because the Fourth had many enemies at the time, mostly with Rock and also that his marriage was a secret. If word had gotten out that the Fourth had a family, there would have been assassination and kidnapping attempts to try to break the Fourth Hokage."

"In that case, what was the Fourth's name?"

"His name in Minato Namikaze and perhaps the best shinobi this village had ever produced."

The swordman stood silently for several seconds looking at Naruto. "If I could Hokage-sama, would it be possible if I could adopt Naruto and bring him with me on my travels?

"The Hokage looked at him with a supicious eye. "Why would a stranger like you want to bring a young boy with him on his journey?"

"Because he has an indominatable spirit and great potential, but it won't help if he is surrounded by people that hate his very presense." The Hokage was about to speak out against but was cut off. "You may have passed out laws preventing people from openly telling Naruto is the holder of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Kyubbi, but doesn't stop people from acting out against him. Even you the Hokage can't kill a large majority if not everyone in this village who hates Naruto, because if you did, this village wouldn't be much of a village." The Hokage was sad but he knew that was the truth.

"Alright then, swordman. I give you the rights to adopt Naruto and permission to allow him paasage out of this village, but do you plan to bring him back?"

"Naruto's path is destined to be a ninja, so I will bring him back when he is old enough to enroll to become a student. But that doesn't mean I can't teach him during his absense from the village. I would like some ninja scrolls from which he can learn from on his own. ", said the swordman with a smile.

"I see." The Hokage had pulled out several pieces of paper and had already filled out most of it already. He handed the swordman a pen and asked him to sign his name. The swordman signed his name and picked up Naruto. The hokage went into his ninja scroll libary and pulled out basic techniques, chakra control and several others and gave them to the swordman. "I will see you in several years, Hokage-sama." The swordman gave him a quick nod before he turned his back and left the room.

The Hokage looked down at the name that was signed. " Himura Kenshin, huh? Wonder how the next several years will turn for Kenshin and Naruto."

Yay, I finished rewriting my first chapter. I hope you guys like it. As for characters, many of the characters will be the same thought the story will be reworked. Parings may be changes around though it will stay NaruX Hina. I hope this chapter is better than my previous. Peace out, everyone.


	2. Return of Naruto Himura Uzumaki

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Ruronin Kenshin or Sword of the New World (will be borrowing stances from it if anyone was wondering)

"Hey, who are..." Normal talking

**Kasumi/kyubbi talking**

**Inner thoughts**

_Normal thoughts_

**The Return of Naruto **

- **Five Years Later-**

The Hokage was fighting his greatest enemy, paperwork when he had decided to take a break and take a look out his window at Konoha. _Well, its been five years since Kenshin adopted Naruto and took him on his travels. I wonder when they will be coming back._

-**Outside the gates of Konoha-**

"Well, we are back, Naruto.", said Kenshin to a small back who was wearing almost the same attire as himself, except for a skin-tight mask that covered his lower face. Naruto just gave a small nod with his head to show that he had heard. "Let's go to the Hokage so that we can get you checked in." They both walked up to the gate and the gate watchers just let them by without stopping to ask who there were.

**-Back in the Hokage's Office-**

The Hokage was back to fighting he never ending pile of paperwork when he heard a knock oh his door. "Come in." His eyes lit up when he saw Naruto and Kenshin walk through the door. "Well, its has been a long time, Naruto." Naruto removed the mask from his face and gave a rare smile that only people he trusted had ever seen before he had placed the mask back. "Well, I can assume since you came back, Naruto will be enrolling in the Ninja Academy?" Kenshin gave a nod while Naruto looked indifferent. The Hokage brought some papers that needed to be signed so that Naruto could be enrolled. "Well, since Naruto is going to school, I would assume a place to live would also be needed?"

"A small apartment should do it for the both of us.", said Kenshin.

"Alright, then." The Hokage pulled out a spare key from his desk and told an address to Kenshin. "So what has Naruto been learning over these past few years?"

Kenshin thought for a moment before giving his answers."Aside from all the scrolls and swordmanship, he has picked up quite a few hobbies. Hunting and playing music are just two of them."

The Hokage was in shock that Naruto was able to master all of the scrolls that were given to him, along with sword training and still have some time to have hobbies. "Well, it seems that Naruto is well prepared to enter the Academy. You are free to go now."

Kenshin and Naruto both bowed and left the room, leaving the Hokage to deal with a new stack of paperwork that had appeared out of nowhere.

-**The Next Day-**

Naruto woke up groggily and rubbed his eyes and realized that he had to get to school.He quickly pulled on a shirt and pulled on his pants and grabbed his mask on the way out of his room.

"Well, its about time you woke up, sleepyhead. I was wondering when you would wake up.", called out Kenshin from the kitchen. Naruto ran by the table and grabbed a piece of toast that was lying on the table and rusehd out the door. Kenshin just smiled at Naruto and proceeded to clean up.

-**At the Ninja Academy-**

The whole class was chatting with each other, while a large portion of the girls were throwing looks at Sasuke Uchiha and giggling behind their hands. Iruka-sensei had walked into the room and the entire class settled down and went into their seats. Iruka stood in front of the entire class and started to call out names and everyone said various things to show they were present. Iruka then wondered when the new student whould show up when the door opened up. All eyes turned to the door and saw Naruto with his wild blond hair, bright blue eyes and a mask that covered his face. Most of the girls who were ogling Sasuke all started to ogle Naruto. "Today class, we have a new student joining us today. Why don't you come forward and introduce yourself?"

Naruto walked to the front of the class and said," My name is Naruto Himura Uzumaki. I hope I will come to know all of you well and hopefully we can become friends." His voice showed no emotion and he looked at the class with eyes tha showed no emotion. The entire class shivered when they saw his eyes and even Iruka had to shake himself awake. "Naruto, why don't you go sit next to Hinata? There is a seat by her. Hinata, could you please raise you hand to show where you are?"

Hinata shyly rose her hand and Naruto walked up the steps with every pair of eyes looking at him. He sat down and Hinata seemingly turned from her usually pale white color to a bright red. Iruka then brought everyone attention to the board where they started their lesson.

**-Later during the lunch break-**

Naruto was sitting quietly with on a bench while a large group of giggling girls were staring at him. He glanced in their direction and they seem to whisper and giggle some more. Naruto shook his head, knowing he would never understand girls. He then felt a tug on his shirt and he was face to face with Sasuke Uchiha. "Who the heck do you think you are to just come in here and act all tough and cool like that?

Naruto glanced down at Sasuke's hand on his shirt and pointed at it. "Could you please remove your hand from my shirt, please?", he said in a pleasent voice. Sasuke's eues lit up at this comment and pulled his fist to punch Naruto in the face. Iruka at that exact had appeared outside to call them back in and Sasuke scoffed and whispered in Naruto's calm face. "You're lucky Iruka-sensei came outside or else you would have been beaten into the dust." Naruto just looked at him with eyes that betrayed no emotions and walked into the class with a group of girls in his wake.

-**In Class-**

"Today, class. W will be sparing today. I will pair you up with a partner and we will take turns sparring against each other." Itruka started to go down his list and was left with three names at the end. "Sasuke, Naruto and Hinata, since you three happen be the last people not partnered, there will be a three way spar. Is that okay with you guys?" Hinata gave a small nod, Sasuke gave a 'hn' and Naruto just stared at Iruka which he figured to be a yes.

The entire class moved to the sparing room where all the matches went off without a hitch except for the occasional bruise that would show after evey match. The entire class all wanted to watch the last match becasue it would have Hinata Huggya, who family was said to be skiled in taijutsu; Sasuke Uchiha, the last Uchiha and a proclaimed genius and Naruto Uzumaki, the mysterious person. All three stood in the ring with Hinata in her family's taijutsu stance, the Gentle Fist, Sasuke stood with his fists closed tightly around his body and Naruto stood there with his hands at his side. The class looked at him oddly wondering why he wasn't readying himself but Iruka started the match. Hinata hestiated but went after Naruto first while Sasuke dashed toward Naruto with a spped not normal for a genin. Naruto quickly sidestepped Sasuke's charge and spun arounf lightly pushing Hinata making her lose her balance. Both recomposed themselves and made to go after Naruto again. Naruto dodged all of their attacks and soon both were breathing hard and sweating while Naruto had barely broken a sweat.

Hinata, who started to feel lightheaded from her exhastion, started to sway back and forth and tripped over her own feet. She had expected to hit the floor so she had closed her eyes but was caught but a pair of strong hands. She opened them again and she found herself staring into two bright blue eyes and quickly started to blush.

Naruto, seeing that Hinata was falling over had caught her before she had hit the floor. He looked into her pale lavender eyes and thought, _She has really pretty eyes. But why is she blushing? _Naruto's train of thought was interupted though when he felt Sasuke attacking him from behind. He quickly placed Hinata on the ground and spun around, grabbing Naruto's incoming fist and quickly pulled Sasuke's hand behind his back and pinned Sasuke against the ground.

Sasuke, who had finally found an opening when Naruto had caught Hinata had ran forward, hoping to knock Naruto out with a punch to the head. He quickly found himself on the ground with his arm behind his back. _How the hell was he able to know I was about to attack him? I'm the last Uchiha, no one is supposed to be stronger than me. He shouldn't be able to do this. _He then heard Naruto whisper in his ear. "I suggest you lose the I'm superior to everyone act or the next several years will be a pain in the ass for you."

Iruka had called the match and the entire class was in shock that neither Sasuke or Hinata were able to land a hit on Naruto and that Naruto had won by forcing his opponents to wear themselves out. The entire group of girls that had cheered Naruto were now waving banners that had appeared out of nowhere that had various phrases that were Naruto-based. Naruto got off of Sasuke and dusted off his hands. He went to go check oh Hinata who had now recovered though her face was still flushed. Naruto bowed to both and left the sparring area with eyes of the class following him.

"Class is over for today, kids. You guys are free to go now." There was an immediate rush for the door as all the kids piled out of the room. _Naruto Himura Uzumaki, huh? Seem he is going to fit in just fine. I just wonder how crazy the next few years will be though. _

So, my rework of my story is slowly moving along as I gather my ideas togehter. I hope you guys will enjoy it.


	3. Flashbacks and Naruto's Power

Ch. 3

Graduation Exams

Naruto woke up to the sun shining down on his face and he rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock. It read 6:30 and Naruto shook himself awake and prepared himself for the coming day. He put on his mask and went out into the kitchen where he pulled out a cup of instant ramen and poured hot water into the cup. He put a book on top of it so the heat whould stay inside. He leaned up against the counter and started to reflect everything that had happened over the three years since he had arrived back in Konoha. The first becoming friends with Hinata.

**-Flashback-**

**Naruto was sitting on the roof of the school, eating his lunch and fiddling around with his flute, to escape the rabid fangirls that would follow either him or Sasuke around. He put his lips to the flute to start playing when he heard movement from the stairs. "Who on the stairs?", he asked loudly.**

**There was a small squeak and someone who he wasn't expecting came into view. It was Hinata Hyugga who in his opinion was one of the strongest kunochi in his class but had a very bad self-confidence problem. "So, why are you following me, Hinata?"**

**She averted her eyes away from Naruto and kept her head down. "U-Um, I w-was just w-w-wondering where y-you eat lunch s-so I d-decided to follow y-you."**

**Naruto looked at her carefully and sensed no decit in her voice. "I see, Hinata. Since you are up here, would like to stay and listen to me play?" He motioned to his flute.**

**Hinata nodded and seated herself on the same bench Naruto was sitting. She hadn't noticed that Naruto had pulled down his mask to eat and was now preparing to play. Naruto put his lips to the flute and out came some melancholy music that Hinata was able to connect with. **(think Sadness and Sorrow here)** Hinata just closed her eyes and listened to the tune, swaying back and forth with the music. The music had stopped and when Hinata opened her eyes again, she saw Naruto had disappeared and there was a large crowd of fangirls who had heard his music and rushed up here to try and find him. Hinata then felt something in her lap and looked down to see the flute was there. On it there was a note attached. It said, "This was my first flute I got. Please take it as a sign of our friendship." Hinata stared at the note with a blush on her face.**

**-Flashback Ends-**

Naruto smiled at that memory and wondered where Hinata had placed the flute. He noted again that the house was empty except for himself and reflected the day the Kenshin had left on his journey.

-**Flashback-**

**Naruto was getting back from another day from the Academy and had arrived at the apartment when he and Kenshin lived. When he opened the door, he saw that Kenshin was wearing his traveling straw hat and was wearing his basket again. Naruto looked confusedly and asked, "Kenshin, where are you going?"**

**Kenshin turned around and looked at Naruto. "Naruto, it is time for me to move on again."**

**Naruto immediately rushed Kenshin and hugged his leg. "You can't go. I need you."**

**Kenshin removed Naruto from his leg and knelt down. "Look, Naruto. I know you don't want me to go but I have many more things to do and I can't do them here in Konoha."**

**Naruto looked at him with defiant eyes. "Then, take me with you." But he already knew the answer.**

**Kenshin sighed, "You know I can't do that, Naruto. You deserve a better life than living on the road with me."**

**Naruto conceded and looked up at him with teary eyes. Kenshin pulled him into a hug. He then stood up and hefted his basket. He went to the door and told Naruto, "On the counter, I have left several items for you. Two of them are swords, both different in their puropse. I will leave it up to you for which one to weild. The rest are scrolls in which I have recorded all I know about Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu style along with more advanced scrolls that hte Hokage had provided. I trust you will use them to their fullest pontential. The last scroll is something I asked the Hokage to put together with contains many of your hobbies and interests. I hope you do well, and I will be coming back to check up on how you are doing." With that said, Kenshin opened the door and walked out, leaving Naruto alone in the apartment.**

**-Flashback ends-**

Since then, Naruto had trained non-stop since the day Kenshin left and he felt his skills were near Chunnin level if not hihger, but that was just a self evaluation so he couldn't be too sure. Unfornately during one of the training matched, he met face to face with his tenant.

-**Flashback-**

**Naruto was sparring with his swords against shadow clones he had created while perusing through the scrolls that were left behind. He had managed to dispel all of his clones but one and was looking around to locate the last one. He was exhasted and was sweating profusely, and with his vision started to get hazy which would explain why he didn't raise his sword to block a frontal attack from the last clone. The clone swiped down in a diagonal and a line of blood formed from Naruto before a gush og blood started to flow. Naruto fell to the ground in a heap, thinking he was going to die right then and there and he blacked out. **

_**-In Naruto's mindscape-**_

**Naruto opened his eyes again and found himself surrounded by darkness. "Where the hell am I and why is there so much water in here?" Naruto indeed was knee high in some murky water. He observed his surrounding and he noted a giant cage and when he looked closer, there was a piece of paper that said "Seal". He moved closer to the cage and peered inside. He was greeted with the sight of a large sleeping fox and a small stream of what looked like red chakra moving from the fox and out of the cage. Naruto was confused at where he was and started to think of possible places, but couldn't come up with a answer. During his pondering, the fox had woken up and had situated itself right up against the bars of the cage looking down at Naruto. Naruto had felt a looming presense over him and when he turned around, he jumped back in a defensive stance.**

**"Well, it seems that my container hasn't been slacking in his training." **

**Naruto looked at the fox supiciously and asked, "Who are you and where are we, Fox-sama?"**

**The fox was suprised at his manner and answered. "I am the nine-tailed Fox, Kyubbi no Yoko, and we are in your mind."**

**Naruto almost paniced when he heard he was in front of perhaps the most powerful creature in the world but it did not explain why he was in his own mind. "Why am I in my own mind?"**

**"I believe it was because of that wound you received a couple minutes ago. You blacked out and are now currently in front of me. As for wound, I have healed it but I have decieded to leave a scar as a reminder to be more careful when you train." **

**"Are you a male or female fox?" asked Naruto. "Because in all the textbooks, I have read on you, they say you are male but I not sure as I look at you right now."**

**Kyubbi was thrown off by the bluntness of the question but decieded to tell Naruto anyways. "Well, you are the first person that didn't automatically assume that I was a male because of all the power that I had in my aresenal. I am a female and damn proud of it too. But its time for you to wake up now and we eventually talk again in the future."**

**Kyubbi then disappeared and Naruto felt himself being pulled out somewhere.**

_**-Out in the real world-**_

**Naruto woke and rubbed his head. "Damn, that was a odd dream. He scratched his chest and he felt a scar. He looked down that he had a scar that was healed but left a mark fro his right shoulder to his left waist. He only looked in wonder seeing how fast he healed and mentally thanked Kyubbi.**

**Somewhere in her cage, Kyubbi smiled at the thought.**

**-Flashback Ends-**

Since that moment, Kyubbi had mad no effort to contact Naruto and no matter how hard Naruto tired, he couldn't reach Kyubbi. But he had become more careful in his training to avoid anymore serious accidents.

He noticed that 3 minutes had passed and pounced on his ramen devouring in less than 30 seconds and prepared himself to go do training. After 2 hours of various types of training, he went back to his apartment to clean up and prepare to go the Academy to participate in the Genin Exams, the exam that would determine who would become Genin, who would be held back, or dropped from the program. Naruto had ranked himself at the top of the class but he never showed his skills at the Academy and resorted to fighting and performing at a level much lower than what he was capable of. The results was his ranking was near the dead last of the Academy if not the dead last. He had recieved many taunts from Sasuke who had blamed his loss to Naruto as luck and that there was no way the dead last could ever beat the Uchiha prodigy.

Naruto put his mask back on and proceeded to the Academy. He arrived in the room and observed who was already in the room.

Shino Aburame, who was talking to a bug on his finger; Chouji Akimichi, who was eating a bag of potato chips; Shikamaru Nara, who was sitting next to Chouji with a bored expression; Hinata Hyugga, who was sitting nervously in her seat and trying to keep Kiba from putting his arm around her; Kiba Inuzuka and his dog Akamura, who was trying to put his arm around Hinata and asking her out on a date; and Sasuke Uchiha; who was brooding with a straight face. Naruto moved up the stairs and decided to sit next to Hinata. Kiba had noticed Naruto walking toward him and knew Naruto would try and sit down next to Hinata so he stood up and blocked Naruto path.

Naruto looked at Kiba who was in his way with a lazy eye. "May I ask why you are blocking my path?"

Kiba glared back at Naruto and said, "I know you want to sit next to Hinata but that too bad because I'm already sitting next to her."

"Oh really? Well, I'm going to show you how I'm going to sit next to Hinata." By now the whole class had heard what was going on and was looking to see what would happen.

"Oh yea smart guy? Show it to me." Kiba replied arrogantly.

Naruto smirked under his mask and knew his plan was already going to work but made no visible sign to show his victory. "Alright then, Kiba. I want you to stay right here and don't move a single step." Kiba being not too smart accepted what Naruto told him. Naruto then walked past Kiba and sat down in the chair that was previously occupied but Kiba himself. He looked at an enraged Kiba and siad, "And that is how you do it."

Kiba became angry at Naruto and demanded that Naruto get out of his seat.

"Why should I move? You wanted to prove that I could take the seat from you and that what I did."

"You don't deserve to sit next to Hinata. Only I care about her."

"Oh really then? How much do you actually know about her? Do you know here favorite color? Favorite Food?" Naruto asked. Looking at Kiba's blank face, he got his answer. "That's what I thought." Kiba sent Naruto a dark look and went to a seat several rows back, muttering under his breath.

Hinata had whispered under her breath, "Thank you, Naruto."

"It was no problem, Hinata," Naruto whispered back. At that moment, several louds shrieks were heard and everyone turned and faced the doorway into the classroom. There was a blockade of a girl with bright pink hair and a girl with blonde hair who both had tried to reach the coveted seat right next to Sasuke Uchiha. The girls name were Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka and both were the biggest fangirls of Sasuke and both rushed to the coveted seat next to him. Sakura had reached first and made a loud annoucement with her victory over Ino. Naruto rolled his eyes in annoyance but no other reaction to the girl's foolishness. Iruka-sensei had appeared in the room and gave a speech about becoming a Genin and to wish them the best of luck on the test. He then explained that the test would take up two parts: a written exam and a ninjutsu exam that we observed by himself and an another teacher. He passed out the test and everyone began to work. After about 15 minutes, Iruka started to patrol the room and see the progress of his students and was throughly shocked when Naruto had gotten up from his desk and placed his test on the table. The eyes of all the students followed and most instantly came up with the conclusion, given Naruto was one of the dumbest students in class, he had just given up. After about another hour, all the tests had been handed in and the students were given a 1-hour break before the next half of their exam, where the written exam results would be posted after on the door.

Iruka sat down at his desk and proceeded to grade the tests. Most of the students had fulfilled what he had expected of them, with Saskura, Sasuke, Shino and Hinata being at the top of the class. What shocked Iruka was that Naruto had gotten a perfect score beating out Sakura and Sasuke for the top score. The one hour break soon finished and all the students expectantly looked to see their grades. Everyone was shocked to see that Naruto had gotten the best score out of the entire class and which Naruto acted neutral and sat down in his seat. The students sat down nervously all trying to stay calm and hope to perform their jutsus correctly. One by one, students were called into the seperate room and through the reactions after coming back, everyone was able to figure if the person had failed or passed. Soon enough, Naruto was called who happened to be the last person to take his test and he walked into the room. He saw Iruka and Mizuki who for some reason, Naruto did not trust.

"Okay, Naruto. I want you to perform Kawamari, Henge and create two working Bunshins.," Iruka read off his list.

Naruto nodded and formed a hand seal. "Kawamari!" A cloud of smoke erupted and he was replaced with a chair. He then formed another hand seal and yelled out, "Orioke no jutsu!" Another plume of smoke covered Naruto and when the smoke cleared, Iruka and Mizuki were met with a sight of a near naked girl who was wearing a mask but had thin smoke whisps that barely covered her female parts. To say the least, Iruka and Mizuki were out for a good ten minutes with blood leaking out of their nose. Too bad, when they had woken up, Naruto had gotten a very loud scream in his ear to never do it again or he would suffer the consequence. Iruka then calmed himself down and told Naruto to create two bunshins. Naruto did the hand seal and created two working bunshins. Iruka smiled widely at Naruto, handed him a Konoha hitate and said, "Congratualtion, Naruto. You have become a Genin."

Naruto bowed but asked, "Iruka-sensei, is it required that I have to wear my hitate?"

Iruka looked at him oddly, "Well, you have to wear it while you are doing missions outside the village but the rules don't say you have to wear it all the time."

Naruto bowed at Iruka. "Thank you, Iruka-sensei. You have taught me much over the three years as a student." And Naruto turned around, stowing his hitate in one of his pockets, and left the room. Iruka smiled at Naruto and was proud. Mizuki, however, was not happy that his plan had failed that would allow him to get the Forbidden Scroll and also kill the demon brat at the same time, but he would not allow something get in the way of his plans of getting the ultimate power from Orichmaru.

-Outside the Academy-

Naruto was walking out of the Academy when he saw glares and heard whispering directed in hs direction. He picked up small parts like "thank goodness they didn't let that demon become a ninja..." and other remarks were whispered by the parents of two students who had graduated. Naruto threw them a glare and they immediatley looked away, pretending not knowing what they were talking about. _'Cowards. They when they think they are safe, but the instant danger comes along, thye ran away and feign innocence thye nothing happened._ Naruto was thinking of going to do some more training when he was approached by Hinata. "Did you pass, Naruto-kun?" Naruto gave her a smile that she could barely distinguish through the mask and a thumbs up. Hinata smiled back but asked, "Why arn't you wearing your hitate?"

"Becasue, the less people that know I am a shinobi now, the better. It gives me an element of suprise if someone decides to attack me."

At that moment, Hiashi Hyugga had appeared to hear about the results of the exam and to pick up his daughter. "So, Hinata, did you pass?" Hinata nodded her head. "Good. It was expected of someone from the Hyugga to pass with any trouble." His then saw Naruto. "Any who may you be, boy?"

"My name is Naruto Himura Uzumaki and it nice to meet the father of Hinata." He bowed respectfully to Hiashi. "May I please know your name?"

Hiashi was suprised to see someone so young with such manners. "My name is Hiashi and it was nice to meet you, Naruto. And now if you would excuse me, I must escort my daughter home." And he turned around motioning for Hinata to follow him. Hinata said a silent good bye and waved and Naruto did the same back. Naruto then walked back to his apartment to retrieve his equipment to resume his training.

-**Later that night-**

Naruto was training in the forest when he heard movement. He decided to investigate and after running for a short distance, he saw Mizuki with a large scroll tied to his back and decided to see waht it was. He pulled out a scroll that was designed the Third for him and pulled out a bow and pulled back the string. A arrow that was sealed in a minute scroll on the bow appeared and Naruto took careful aim and shot his arrow. His arrow cut cleanly through the rope holding the scroll to Mizuki's back. Naruto dashed forward and snatched the scroll from the air and disapperaed before Mizuki had even realized he no longer had the scroll.

Mizuki who had sucessfully stolen the forbidden scroll which was patheticly easy which involved taping a porno magazine in the Hokage's face and having him pass out from the blood loss. He grinned knowing he would escape with the scrolland be given power. He had ran for several minutes before he realized the scroll on his back was gone. He outwardly cursed and quickly turned around to locate the lost scroll.

Naruto had mangaed to get a large distance away from Mizuki and was resting up against a tree, catching his breath. He let his eyes wander over the the forbidden scroll and decided it was too much of a chance it let it pass by. He broke the seal holding the scroll together and started to peruse it.

-**An hour later-**

Iruka was searching the forest for whoever could have possibly stolen the forbidden scroll when he glanced in a random direction and saw Naruto looking at the scroll. He silently snuck up and pulled out a kunai to be prepared for anything. He walked forward and saw Naruto reading the forbidden scroll. "Naruto, are you the one who stole the scroll?"

Naruto looked up from his reading and said, "Does it look like I stole the scroll? If I had, I would of have been long gone from by now. I had stopped the real person from getting away from the scroll and had decided to end this person knowing they would turn back to get the forbidden scroll back.

"Just who is the person who stole the scroll?" Iruka inquired.

"Why don't you ask him, seeing as he is about thirty seconds away from our position?" A haggard looking Mizuki had finally located the forbidden scroll only to find it in the hands of the Kyubbi brat and Iruka. He pointed accusingly at Naruto and said, "Iruka, you have to help me. The Kyubbi brat stole the forbidden scroll and was about to escape when I had stopped him. He told me he was going to use the scroll to exact revenge on Konoha."

Naruto's eyes had narrowed at that point and stood up. "You expect Iruka to believe those lies that are being spewed from your mouth? I'm going to fix that problem right now." He pulled out his training sword and pointed it at Mizuki. He stood in a defensive position, waiting to see what Mizuki would do first. Mizuki then ran in a full circle attempting to get around Naruto but Naruto moved to cut him off and pulled back his arm to slice at Mizuki. Mizuki then pulled out a large amount of shuriken and kunai and threw them in Naruto's direction. Naruto instantly pulled out two kunai, one in each hand, to defend himself but saw the weapons were not aimed at him. He turned around and yelled, "Iruka-sensei, watch out!!!" Iruka who was in a daze at what was happening, shook hmself awake and was barely able to block any of the weapons thus results of cuts and weapons sticking on him. Mizuki who saw Naruto was distracted pulled up behind and with a kunai in hand started to drive it downward. Though Naruto had not sensed the attack, Iruka had seen it and made a hand seal. Naruto had felt an attack coming from behind but turned around to see Iruka had kicked him away, take a kunai to the right side of his chest and it was starting to bleed.

Mizuki cursed, "Iruka, why the hell do you defend the demon? He killed your parents and I know you hated the Kyubbi. So why do you defend such scum?" He looked at Naruto. "That's right, Naruto. You are the nine-tailed fox and you killed Iruka's parents and despite him saying how good you are in class, it was all a charade becasue deep down, he hates you, the Kyubbi." Naruto ignored the comment of being the Kyubbi but the part of Iruka stung deep in his soul because he had trusted Iruka and made him a close person. But now, he didn't know what to do with Iruka.

Iruka spoke in ragged gasps, "It may be true that I hate the Kyubbi..." Naruto's eyes widened at that and was ready to run away "... but Naruto is not the Kyubbi. He is a proud shinobi of Konoha and I'm proud to have called him my student."

"Save me the garbage, Iruka. You always were a soft shinobi. Now, I'm just going to kill you off, then Naruto and take the forbidden scroll." Mizuki approached Iruka slowly and Iruka tired to move but the wounds on his chest and legs prevented him from moving without losing more blood. Mizuki stopped in front of Iruka, "Now, Die" And he brought his kunai down again to finish Iruka. Iruka closed his eyes and waited fot the finishing blow but it never came. He opened his eyes again and saw Naruto, covered in a red chakra and if his eyes were fooling him, fox ears and a fox tail.

-**Naruto a few moments back-**

He had seen Iruka take the kunai to his body and was moved to help but hestitated when Mizuki started talking. He almost ran away when Iruka started to talk but stopped when he heard Iruka's revelation. He stood rooted to the spot and closed his eyes. _Kyubbi, if you can hear me, I want you to give me power so I can protect Iruka. _Somewhere in Naruto's mind, Kyubbi responded. **'I will give you chakra, along with fox senses to help you. Use it wisely.' **Naruto felt a surge of chakra and his features became more fox-like and he grew fox ears and a fox tail.

_Time to pay, Mizuki for hurting Iruka-sensei. _Naruto had dashed forward and gave a vicious jumping kick to Mizuki's face effectively knocking him to the ground. Mizuki looked up from his downed position and saw Naruto's chakra and new features. "So, it seems you have decided to reveal your true colors now. Come forward, so I can kill you and become a hero for this village."

Naruto looked at his with eyes of disdain. "Even when backed into a corner, you still spew trash from your mouth." Mizuki laughed deriversly, "Ha, I'm a Chunnin and you are just a Genin. How do you expect to beat me? I would beat you in one punch."

Naruto eyed narrowed, "I'm glad you asked, Mizuki. This is how I'm going to beat you." He put his hands in the ram seal and said, "TAJUU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!!" (Mass shadow clones technique) There a massive amount of smoke clouds and a hundreds of red chakra Naruto's filled the forest. "Ready to recieve you punishment, Mizuki?" Mizuki could only shake in fear at what would happen. THe orginal Naruto swept his hand forward and all the Narutos jumped forward with fists or clawed extended.

-**After a very short beating-**

A bloodied and bruised Mizuki laid on the forest floor and Naruto rushed to Iruka to help with his wound. Iruka though had already stemmed the flow of blood and was walking shakily to Naruto and stumbled forward. Naruto caught him and said, "Come on, Iruka-sensei, let's get you to the hospital." Iruka just nodded his head and allowed Naruto to help him. Before they left the clearing, Naruto grabbed a flare from one of Iruka's pockets and fired into the air alerting the shinboi who were still searching for the forbidden scroll to converge on the site. THey met with the site of an unsealed forbidden scroll and a disfigured traitor to Konoha.

So far, so good. My rewrite is actually going well in my opinion but I will leave that up to the reader. Please Review. A big cookie for whoever reviews. Anything is fair game but if you don't like explain and will try to improve my story.

If you guys are wondering, why Naruto has yet to wield a sword, is because though he had recieved training, he hasn't chosen the sword he will wield which should be in the next chapter.

Next Chapter: Teams are formed and the Test for Genin.


	4. A New Path and a New Team

CH.4

New team, A New Path and a Test

Naruto was kneeling down in front of the two swords that he had been given by Kenshin a while back. He kneeled in front unable to choose which one he would wield. Suddenly, the room turned black and Naruto stood up in alarm at what was happening. The swords both started to give off an aura and Naruto turned his attention back to them. A voice rang out and said, "Young shinobi and swordsman, two paths now lie before you, one lies in protecting others..." One of the swords unsheathed itself and revealed it was a sakabato "...and the other lies in killing." The second sword unsheathed itself and revealed that it was a katana. "Which one do you choose?" Naruto looked at both swords and thought which what each sword represented. Naruto stepped forward and said, "The path that I choose is...MY OWN!!!" Naruto grasped both swords and there was a bright flash and Naruto closed his eyes. When Naruto thought it was safe to open his eyes, he was back in the apartment. He looked down and saw that the swords had now changed. They both had intricate designs engraved in each and Naruto wondered what they meant. He put both swords back in his respective sheets and made a note to create a style that would effectively use both in combat. He put the katana and put the sakabato into ascroll for safekeeping.He looked at himself in a mirror and decided to put on a different change of clothes. Luckily, yesterday before he had gone training, he had gone in a bought a few new outfits and decided to wear one of them. He still had his mask but now it was combined with a sleeveless black shirt that stuck to Naruto's leanmuscles. He wore a pair of black pants that had many pockets for various items. He also put on a pair of fingerless gloves, where he flexed his fingers to get the feeling right. He tied his hair back into a ponytail with a ribbon; he had gotten it from Kenshin when his hair had grown too long and it was getting in his face. He put several scrolls that contained his bow, his two swords and his flute in his pants pockets. Kyubbi in his mind was admiring the changes and hoped her decision to help Naruto choose his path would be the right one.

-At the Academy-

Many of the students were talking excitedly about finally becoming genin, while many of the girls in the class were fawning over Sasuke. The instant Naruto had stepped in the room, many of the fan girls somehow teleported and were now fawning over Naruto who kawamari himself with Kiba who was about to sit down next to Hinata. Kiba looked hopeful in the group of girls but they broke away and Kiba walked to a different seat disgruntled. Hinata was looking at Naruto's new appearance and was blushing at the sight of Naruto's body. Iruka came in, with bandages covering his body. One of the genin questioned, "Iruka, what is with all the bandages?

Iruka smiled, "It was nothing big. I just got in a fight from a Chunnin traitor in out village. He was trying to steal a scroll from the Hokage but he was caught but he was able to get away. I had help in defeating him." One of the students asked who had helped him. Iruka pointed at someone in the classroom and all eyes turned to where he was pointing. All eyes were on Naruto and he looked like a deer in headlights. "Oro?"(Huh?) Many of the students were in awe that Naruto had defeated a Chunnin but some were thinking that it wasn't true. coughKiba,Sasukecough) Before the class could question Naruto, Iruka started to name the teams. He went through the numbers and when Team Seven, he said, "Team Seven will consist of Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha..." Sakura had cheered at this and saying it was fate that Sasuke and her were on the same team."...and Naruto Uzumaki."There was a loud thump and it was repeated and everyone saw that it was Naruto banging his head against the table. Naruto spoke, "May I have an explanation on why I am with Sasuke and Sakura, Iruka-sensei?

Though it seems you passed the Genin Exams with the top score, the rest of your academics are the lowest of the class. So, therefore you were paired with Sakura and Sasuke." Naruto continued to bang his head against the table. Iruka decided to continue and said, "Your jounin sensei will be Kakashi Hatake." Iruka looked down his list. "Team Eight will consists of Shino Aburame…"Shino took it with silence. "...Hinata Hyugga…"Hinata was saddened by the thought that she couldn't be with Naruto "...and Kiba Inuzuka." Kiba was plotting how to get Hianta to love him and not Naruto now that they would be separated. "Your jounin sensei will be Kurenai Yuhi." Iruka looked down his list. " Team nine is still in circulation so we will ignore them. Team 10 will consists of Shikumaru Nara..." Shikumaru took it with a bored expression on his face "…Chouji Akimichi…" Chouji continued to eat his potato chips with a passion "and Ino Yamanaka." She groaned and complained about being on a team with a lazy bum and a fat ass. "Your jounin sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi."

"You all have until about one to do anything you will like before your jounin sensei comes."He closed the book that contained the list. "Well, My job here is done as your teacher. I hope you all the best luck as Shinobi of Konoha."He walked out of the room and the genin started to chat again. Naruto turned to Hianta and asked, "So, Hianta, would you like to go get something to go eat before your sensei comes to pick you up?"Hinata blushed but nodded her head. They both stood up and walked to the door but were blocked by Kiba with Akamaru in his jacket.

"Why don't you eat with your own teammates, Naruto? Hinata is on my team now and I should be te one to take her out." Naruto looked at him with an aloof look before saying while pointing at a random spot, "Look, a piece of steak on the ground!"Kiba turned to where Naruto pointed but realized he fell for the trap. By the time he turned back to face Naruto, Naruto was gone in a flash with Hinata in tow.

**-Outside the Academy-**

Naruto was walking with a passive expression on his face while Hianta was clutching her sides, breathing heavily. "Naruto, was it necessary to run away from Kiba at the Academy?"

"I figured it was the only way to shake off the flea bitten dog so that's what I did. So what would you like to eat, Hinata?" Hinata's face lit up and she spoke in a voice that wasn't her usual tone. It had taken on a more sensual tone "Naruto-kun, could we please go get cinnamon buns?"

Naruto was going to say no because her addiction to cinnamon buns had made Naruto very low on money on several occasions. He was about to say no when Hinata gave him the puppy dog look. Naruto tried to look away but found himself being pulled to look into Hinata's eyes. Naruto sighed in defeat and said, "Fine, you win. I'll go buy you cinnamon buns." Hinata jumped in joy and threw her fingers out in a V for victory.

**-Several minutes later-**

Naruto was sadly looking at his empty wallet while Hianta had a large bag of cinnamon buns, which she was happily eating. Naruto put his wallet back in one of his pockets and followed beside Hianta. After a while, they sat down on a bench and Hianta finished the buns and was smiling after being satisfied. Naruto noticed the mess that was on Hinata's face and pulled out a napkin and stood in front of Hinata. "Hianta, you have a mess on your face. Let me help you clean up." Hinata was starting to blush at the close proximity of Naruto's face to her and the blush darkened when he started to touch her face with the napkin. Naruto finished cleaning her face and tossed the napkin into a wastebasket. Naruto motioned that they should go back to the Academy and Hianta stood up and walked beside Naruto. They continued to walk when Naruto noticed that he had missed a spot while cleaning her face. He slowly slipped his mask down and licked the spot that he had missed. Hinata instantly froze and Naruto pulled back afraid that he had done something wrong. Hinata though just fainted on the spot and Naruto quickly caught her before she hit the ground. He put Hinata on his back and carried her piggy back style. Hinata snuggled into Naruto's back and Naruto blushed under his mask. She murmured "Naruto-kun" and Naruto could only imagine what she was dreaming about.

Naruto carried Hinata into the classroom which attracted attention of all the genin. Naruto just calmly walked down and took a seat next to Shino. Shino had no reaction but looked at Naruto. "Shino, I would like to ask a favor from you. I know that we barely talked with each other in the Academy but I want you to do something for me." He motioned to the dozing Hinata. "Can watch her and keep Kiba away from

making any unwanted advances on Hinata?" Shino continued to look at Naruto and gave a small nod. "I'm sure out jounin sensei will be able to control Kiba, Naruto. But if our sensei is unable too, I will step in." Naruto grabbed Shino's hand and shook it. "You have my thanks, Shino." He went back to Hinata who he had placed in a chair and gently shook her awake. Hinata opened her eyes and she blushed as she thought of the moment that had made her faint. A jounin sensei had came in and announced herself as Kurenai Yuhi and said the name of her team. A passive Shino and angry looking Kiba walked to the front and Hinata made to go to the front but Naruto held her back for a moment. "Hinata, before you leave, let me tell you that you are my best friend and I would have never gotten through the Academy without you there. No go and be the best kunoichi that Konoha had ever seen." Hinata blushed again at the comment and went down to the front. Kurenai escorted them out of the room and Hinata gave a small wave to Naruto which Naruto returned. Naruto sat down quietly at a desk and gazed out a window.

Soon, Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto were the only ones left in the room and there sensei was already two hours late. Sakura was griping to no one in particular, Sasuke was still brooding and Naruto was now looking over several scrolls that he had copied from the forbidden scroll. The door to the classroom then opened and a man with silver hair, wearing a face mask and had his hitate covering one eye. Three pairs of eyes looked at him and he asked, "You guys Team 7?" There were silent looks that he percived to be as a yes. "Well, meet at the top of the Academy rooftop in five minutes." He poofed away and the three genin followed using the stairs.

-On the rooftop of the Academy-

The three genin appeared on the rooftop and their sensei was leaning against the railing on the rooftop. They took a seat in front of him and he turned around. "Well, now that we are all here, let's start with introductions. State you name, likes, dislikes, hobbies and your dream. Let's start with you, Pinky."

Sakura's eyes flashed at the nickname but countered, "Why don't you start to show up how we are supposed to do it?"

Their sensei shrugged his shoulders and started. "My name is Kakashi Hatake. I have a lot of likes and dislikes. My hobbies are few and well my dream, you don't need to know." All three genin stared at him and all thought the same thing. We didn't learn anything about our sensei except for his name. "Now once again, Pinky, you start."

Sakura scowled at the name but started anyways. "My name is Sakura Haruno. I like giggles and glances in Sasuke's direction and I dislike Ino-pig and Sasuke haters. I don't have any hobbies but my dream is to get married to someone glance at Sasuke again. Kakashi pointed at Sasuke. "You next, emo."

Sasuke looked annoyed at the name. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. My likes are nothing. My dislikes are nothing you need to know. My hobby is training. My dream is not much of a dream but more of an ambition, I want to kill a certain man." Kakashi pointed at Naruto last. "You last, copycat."

Naruto just shrugged at the name. "My name is Naruto Himura Uzumaki. My likes are my best friend, my guardian, hunting, music and swords. My dislikes are overly confident people, arrogant people who believe everyone is beneath them and people who try to date without knowing the person. My dream...I don't have a dream, other than to protect everyone who is precious to me."

Kakashi looked over the group and thought, Well, I have an emo avenger, an fan girl of the avenger and copycat that had a solid goal in life. This should be interesting. "Now that introductions are done, I want everyone to meet me at Training ground 7 at 6 o'clock for a survival test. I suggest not eating breakfast, you are going to puke it out." And he poofed away. Sasuke stood up and went down the stairs, and Sakura followed Sasuke like the fan girl she was. Naruto jumped off the rooftop and jumped from rooftop to rooftop thinking about what Hinata was doing.

-At a training ground-

Hinata was pounding a log with her palms when she felt someone approach from behind, she whirled around and struck out and had her palm centimeters from Naruto's face. Naruto just stood there with a neutral expression. "Well, it seems someone had been training hard." Hinata blushed from the comment but looked down at the ground. "It's still not enough to beat my younger sister when we spar against each other though. My father thinks higher than her than of me and I don't know what to do. Every time we spar, I see my mother in her and I lack the will to attack." Tears started to form in her eyes as she let out her frustrations.

Naruto walked up and tilted her face up. "Now, Hinata, what happened to the girl I knew in the Academy that would smile, no matter what happened to herself?

"Oh, stop it Naruto-kun." She faltered when she added the -kun to Naruto's name.

Naruto looked at her kindly and said, "Naruto-kun, huh? I like the sound of that." He went to the log and looked at it. "Poor log, never stood a chance against you, Hinata. How would you like to spar me, then?"

"But, Naruto, we could hurt one another.", said Hinata.

"Hinata, you worry too much. But to motivate you, you will get a reward from me if you are able to land a single hit on me." Naruto grinned under his mask.

Hinata could only wonder what the reward would be as she got into the Huggya juken stance. Naruto observed the stance and said, "I assume that you are in your family fighting style? Hinata nodded and waited for Naruto to make the first move. Hmm, its seems her family's style utilizes only the hands to do the attacking. I wonder if they would be able to use their feet to attack or even attack long range. I know Hinata has near perfect chakra control but how will that help her with her family style? Well, guess I'm about to find out. Naruto got into a basic fighting stance with both fists in front and legs spread apart. He dashed forward and threw a punch out. Hinata blocked with her right forearm before pulling her left arm back and striking Naruto's chest. Naruto, however, grabbed her arm and threw her air where she landed gracefully several feet away.

"Come on now, Hinata. It that the best you can muster together? I thought you were better than our little spar three years ago at the Academy." A tick mark had appeared on Hinata's head and she activated her Byakugan. Oh boy, I think I'm in trouble now. Kyubbi chuckled in his mind. That is what you get for pissing off a girl, especially one that can kick your butt. Hinata had dashed forward and started to let off a flurry of strikes that Naruto could only barely dodge. He felt the chakra coming from Hinata's hands when they flew by his body and he could only start to sweat by all the close calls. Hinata however was starting to be annoyed got into a stance that she had seen had father used while training. "Hakke Rokujuuyonshou!!!" (Eight Divination Signs, Sixty-Four Palms of the Hand) Naruto was quickly under attack and he was now being forced to block with his hands. He was unable to block with all of the attacks and he felt his tenketsu points being closed. Hinata though after the attack had collapsed due to chakra exhaustion and lay down on the ground.

Damn, that attack hurts like hell. But it seems that its only temporary. And it seems that I have to keep my promise because she did manage to land a hit on me. Naruto pulled out a camera and pulled down his mask. He kneeled beside the sleeping Hinata and pointed in at himself and Hinata and took a picture. He also pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down some advice for Hinata to make her fighting even stronger. He laid both down on top of Hinata and disappeared in a whirl of leaves.

Hinata woke up several minutes later with and saw two items on top of her. She looked at the first and saw it was advice. It read, "Hinata, here is what I think you can do to make your fighting stronger. First, incorporate kicks and grabs in your moves. It will make it easier for you to be able to hit you opponent and possible disable tenketsu points if you can fine tune your chakra control. Second, think about inventing or learning long range moves if you ever fight someone who is a long range specialist. Third, you are fighting very stiffely. You need to use your natural flexibiblity and use it to its fullest ponential. Lastly, build up your chakra reserve by working out and doing chakra exercises. You can find them easily in the library. From, Naruto." She read it several times to memorize and put it in a special pocket in her jacket. She looked at a second item which was the picture with her and Naruto. She made to put it away but then did a double take and saw that Naruto had pulled his mask down. She unconsciously drooled at the picture and thought Naruto had such a sexy smile and face. She made a promise to herself that she would see Naruto without his mask.

-The next day-

Naruto woke up around 5:30 and prepared for the survival test. He put all his items in his pockets and made himself a breakfast. As if I'm going to go to a survival test without eating. Without eating, how the heck am I going to survive? And beside, seeing how late our sensei was yesterday, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't come until noon. When he had finished his breakfast, he looked at a clock and it read 6:30.Naruto walked out of his apartment and made his way to the Training Ground 7. When he arrived, he saw both Sakura and Sasuke were already there but both looked as if they had not eaten anything. Naruto sat down behind one of the training posts and pulled out a scroll again and started to study its content. Sakura got curious about what Naruto was reading and tried to read over Naruto's shoulder. Naruto closed the scroll and looked at Sakura. "You know, Sakura, its rude to read over someone's shoulder." Sakura backed away acting if she hadn't done anything wrong. This continued for about two more hours with Naruto studying, Sakura trying to find ways to entertain herself and Sasuke continuing to be a brooding emo.

When Kakashi had finally arrived, Sakura screeched that he was late. "Well, I got lost on the road of life and-"

"LIAR!!!", yelled Sakura.

"Aside from that, lets get this survival test on the road. But first, did any of you eat breakfast?" Sasuke and Sakura shook their head but Naruto gave no response. "Well, it seems one of you were thinking like a ninja and decided to eat anyways. Good job, Naruto for seeing past my first trap." Sakura and Sasuke look infuriated that they could have eaten but they didn't. "Today's test will be taking retrieving these two bells from me."

Sakura questioned, "Why are there only two bells though?"

"Good question, Sakura. The reason is only two of you will be moving on to become Genin and one will be sent back to the Academy." Two faces registered shock while another one eyes narrowed that person started to see through the trap. "The one person who does not get a bell from me will be sent back to the Academy. You three have until noon to get the bells from me. The one who doesn't get a bell will be tied to a stump and be forced to watch to the other two eat these." He pulled out two bento boxes and an alarm clock and put it on a training stump. "You better come at me with the intent to kill or you won't get a bell. The test starts now."

Sasuke and Sakura instantly darted away and went to find a hiding spot. Naruto, however stood still and waited to see what Kakashi would do. Kakashi pulled out a small orange book and Naruto's eyes narrowed. "So, Kakashi-sensei, do you plan to take us genin seriously?" Kakashi looked up from his reading and replied, "Why should I?"

Naruto glared back and said, "That was the answer I was looking for." He made a hand sign and a large amount of leaves obscured Naruto. A few seconds later, the leaves dispersed and Naruto was nowhere to be seen. Kakashi got looked on lazily and passed it off as nothing big. After about 15 minutes, Kakashi started to try and sense where his students were. He was able to sense Sasuke, who was about 50 meters away in a tree, and Sakura, who was hiding under a bush about the same distance but he could not get a solid hold on Naruto's chakra. It seemed that Naruto's chakra was all around him and he could not figure out why. Suddenly, an arrow came flying out and was headed for Kakashi, he lazily pulled out a kunai and blocked the arrow and as soon as he did that, two more arrows came from two different directions and the process kept going until Kakashi was being forced to put his book away and start to dodge. Kakashi was now thinking who was firing the arrows and he immediately removed Sakura and Sasuke because they had not yet moved from their hiding positions and came up with Naruto. But what baffled Kakashi was why Naruto was even using arrows as a weapon and he got he had gotten such a precise aim, but couldn't process that thought so he decided to go into the forest for cover and search out the other two genin.

Naruto walked out into the clearing after Kakashi had gone and picked two bells off the ground. Kakashi had not noticed the bells had been cut off by an arrow. Naruto picked them up and set out to find his two teammates before Kakashi did.

-With Sakura-

She was bewildered when she had seen arrows being fired by someone and instantly thought it was Sasuke. She made to move and had not realized Kakashi was right behind her. She heard a "Boo" and turned around and was caught in a genjutsu immediately. Sakura soon let out a scream before and feel to the forst floor with foam forming at her mouth. Kakashi just wondered if had gone overboard with his genjutsu but shrugged it off. Now, time to find Sasuke.

-With Sasuke-

He was jumping through the trees in the forest trying to figure a way that he would be able to get a bell from Kakashi when he landed in a clearing. He had felt a presense a few seconds before he had but he could not sense anyone around. He heard a rumbling underneath him and he suddenly found himself head deep in the ground. Kakashi appeared before him and taunted, " Well, its seems the great Sasuke isn't all what he says he is." Kakashi patted the area where the bells were. His face suddenly changed as he started to search for the bells. He dashed away retacing his steps hoping to find the bells. Sasuke just wondered what else could go wrong when Naruto appeared in front of him, weilding a bow and two bells hanging off of it. "Looks like you could use some help, Sasuke." Sasuke looked shocked that Naruto had even gotten a bell and quickly though of a plan. "Yea, Naruto. Could you please help me?" Naruto walked over and grabbed the scruff of Sasuke's shirt and pulled. Sasuke easily came out of the ground and Sasuke instantly darted toward Naruto's bow and stole a bell before darting off. Naruto looked at Sasuke's retreating back and thought, And I was going to give the bell to him. Time to go find Sakura.

Naruto had found Sakura on the forest floor still passed out. He pulled out some smelling salts and palced it under her nose. Sakura instantly reacted and sat straight up. She looked at Naruto and he held out a bell out in front of her. She took the bell but asked, "Why are you giving this to me, shouldn't you keep it for yourself?" Naruto shrugged and told her, "I should keep for myself, but that wouldn't help the team now would it?" Sakura was about to answer when she realized the true point of the test.

"It seems you know understand now, Sakura. The two bells were just a distraction for us to work together becaseu do you expect us to take down a jounin by ourself? The arrows that I had fired was a distraction I hoped either of you two would use to attack Kakashi and it was only by luck that I had manged to hit the string holding the bells to Kakashi's belt." The alram clock sounded off in the distance and Naruto motioned to Sakura to follow. "We may still be able to pass this test if we come together."

-Meanwhile with Kakashi-

Kakashi was finishing tying up Sasuke while Sasuke while yeling his head off to be let go and that he dind't desevered to be tied to the training log. Kakashi then felt Naruto and Sakura slowly approaching and Skura had a bell in her hand. Kakashi waited until both had arrived at where he was standing before he started his questioning. "Sakura, where did you get that bell from?" She looked nervous under Kakashi's gaze but she said, "I got mine from Naruto." Kakashi asked anohter question. "Did you get it from him willingly?" Sakura nodded. Kakashi looked down at Sasuke who was still struggling against his bonds. "That is the reason why you are tied up and Sakura or Naruto is not. You stole something that Naruto had claimed, even though it was by chance. It seems that he was going to give a bell to you and Sakura but you acted to hastily and did allow Naruto the cahnce. You seeked the short way out by stealing something of your teammates. Actions like that can be deadly in the ninja world." Kakashi walked over to a stone that was in the middle of the field. "Here on this stones are the names of heroes of Konoha. The names of many of my closest friends are on this stone." Sakura asked, "How are these people heroes?" Kakashi looked down at the stone, "These people are KIA." Three pairs of eyes softened and looked away from each other. "Remember this, people who do not follow the rules are trash, but people who abandon their own comrades are worse than trash." He cut Sasuke loose from the training stump and told him, "I hope this shows that your teammates are more than willing to help you, Sasuke." Kakashi's face then lit up, "Well, starting tommorrow, Team 7 will offically start missions."He gave a thumbs up which all three genin returned.

WOOT. I acutally mamgaed to finish a chapter much faster than I expected, partly becasue I wokred on it during school. I also apologize if the formatting is odd-looking. Please Review. Anything is accepted, especially stuff that could possibly make this story better to read. Haku is going to be a girl that lives in this fanfic for those who had not read my previous fic before I scrapped it. Still debating on wether Zabuza will live or not though. Thank you very much and Peace Out.

Next chapter: Mission to the Land in the Waves


	5. On toward the Land in the Waves

CH.5

"Normal Speech"

'_Thoughts' _

**Kyubbi speaking**

_**Naruto speaking to Kyubbi in his mind**_

Mission to the Land of the Waves

The next several months went smoothly for Naruto training and creating a style that would utilize both of his swords. Often, Hinata would join in his training in which Hinata would practice her own style of juuken while practicing her clan's style. One thing that Naruto hated this entire time was the missions he was forced to do. Each missions he would be forced to work alone on the missions and most of the time if was done with glares and muttering behind his back. Rarely would there be a client that would appreciate his work and thanked him with a smile. As for the rest of his team, Sasuke, despite his humbling lesson during the Genin survival test, had taken back his arrogant attitude and claimed that he was above doing D-ranked missions. Sakura had followed Sasuke's example and stated if her precious Sasuke-kun wasn't doing missions then she didn't have too. Kakashi just kept his head in his porn novels and barely paid attention to what his genin did. So following a mission involving a certain cat, Team 7 was reporting the results of a successful mission and watched the cat being hugged to death by its hefty owner.

Sarutobi sat at the desk and shifted through several papers, "Well done, Team 7. You have another D-ranked mission recorded. I have several more D-ranked missions here, if you would like to do them. There is a painting a fence, babysitting the Taro's children and weeding a garden."

Sasuke stepped forward and said, "I demand that we get a C-ranked mission now. I am tired of all these stupid jobs."

Naruto glared as Sasuke._ What is he talking about? He never helps in doing any of the jobs anyways which reminds me that I should talk to Ojji-sama about that. But a C-ranked mission does sound good right now._ Naruto kept an impassive face on the outside just thinking about what could happen.

Sarutobi just sat at his desk, eyeing each member of the team and decided to give them a C-ranked mission. Sarutobi pulled out a file from a stack of paper. "I will give you an escort mission. Your client will be a bridge builder from the Land of the Waves named Tazuna. He should be outside the door." Sarutobi raised his voice and said, "You can come in now."

A man came in, with a bottle in hand and he was clearly drunk by the way he smelled and how he was standing. Tazuna looked down at the team and said, "So, I get an emo looking boy, a skinny girl, a silver-haired cyclops and a blond brat as my protection? What kind of joke is this?" He was about to take another swig from his bottle when it fell cleanly in half, spilling it contents all over the floor. All looked at Naruto who had summoned out his katana and sliced the bottle in half before anyone was able to see. His eyes showed anger and a killing intent was being directed at Tazuna. "I suggest you watch your tongue then next time you decide to insult the people that you have hired to protect you."

Tazuna just mutely nodded his head and bowed his way out of the room. Naruto put his katana back into his scroll and crossed his arms across his chest, eyes narrowed. Sarutobi sighed and said, "Naruto, I know the client had insulted you and your team, but please refrain from attacking our clients. Well, that is all; you are free until tomorrow morning when you are to escort Tazuna back home." Team 7 dispersed from the room; Sasuke, off to go brood; Sakura, to go follow Sasuke like a true fangirl: Kakashi, to go read his orange book in private; and Naruto to go get supplies and train.

**-Naruto's apartment-**

Naruto was currently in his mind and was speaking with Kyubbi. Naruto had made the mindscape much more pleasant and was sitting in a field. Kyubbi had taken a form of a small girl with fox ears and tail and was running around, enjoying her new "cage". _**So, Kyubbi, I have been training with my swords for a long time now and I have noticed the seals engraved on the swords. What exactly do they do?**_

Kyubbi had stopped running around and settled down. **The seals that I have put into the swords will unlock special powers that are locked inside. But I don't how to unlock them and they will only react when you are faced with a certain situation. Only then will you have access to their powers. On another note, would it be possible for me to get a real body?**

Naruto's eyes bugged out for a second. _**Is that even possible? **_

**"Why not? If mere people are able to seal demons into items and humans, why would it not be possible to create a body and seal me into it?" **

Naruto thought for a moment. _**I see. But where or how would we be able to create a body that would be able to sustain your chakra, Kyubbi?**_

**I'm not sure as of the moment but I will think of something. In the meantime, you should get ready for tomorrow. But before you leave, I am going to give you two more things that are going to make you stronger. One is chakra weights that I will regulate as you become stronger and you get more chakra. The other will be a summoning. You may not be aware, but foxes are able to be summoned but we are a very proud and picky race. We will not allow just anyone to be able to summon us, but seeing as I have been sealed in you and you have qualities that many people lack in this world that foxes respect. I will imprint the marks on your arm and they will come if you summon them. But, be mindful they may not listen to you at first as they are extremely wary of humans. You must gain their trust and in return they will serve you with utmost loyalty. Now, get out of here. I will see you later when I'm able to find out more about getting me a body. **

Naruto snapped out of his mind and stretched his muscles, which were usually heavy when he saw rings of chakra surrounding his wrists and his ankles. He slowly went around his apartment, looking for all his supplies he would need tomorrow and hoping that he would be ale to move normally tomorrow.

**-The next morning-**

Naruto woke up early and put all his supplies in a small backpack and stretched carefully and found that his body had already adjusted to weights on his body. He walked out of his apartment and proceeded to the Hyugga manor where he was going to tell Hinata what his mission was. He arrived at the gate to the manor and was faced with the two guards. "Excuse me, but can I have permission to go inside the Hyugga compound?" Both guards glared at him. "We are not going to allow someone like you inside our compound. Now, be gone before we are forced to send you away by force."

Naruto looked at them and asked, "Alright, then. Could you deliver a message for me then?"

The guards lashed out this time. "Did we tell you to leave, scum?" They dashed forward, preparing to strike Naruto. A voice called out, "What is the meaning of this? Why are you attacking a civilian?" Both guards and Naruto turned toward the voice and it was Hiashi. Both guards quickly stopped and bowed to Hiashi. They pointed at Naruto and said, "This boy here was demanding entrance into the compound and when he denied him, he became defiant and attempted to force his way through and we prepared to repel him when you came Hiashi-sama."

Hiashi looked at his guards with a calculating look and looked at Naruto. "I see. If what you say is true, I would send Naruto away instantly. But his demeanor and posture does not hint toward anything you have said. Naruto let me hear what you have to say."

Naruto looked at the two guards and started talking. "I had come wanting to leave a message for someone, and I had asked for permission to enter but they denied me. I resigned myself to allowing them to relay my message but they got angry and decided to strike first." Hiashi watched Naruto while he spoke and he had detected no lie in what Naruto said. He looked at the two guards and glared at them. "Expect to be punished. You denied admission to someone who asked respectfully and had no ill will toward us." Hiashi puts his hands into a seal to punish the guards but stopped when Naruto stepped in front of them.

"There is not reason to punish, Hiashi. They were just performing their duties and had perceived me as a threat. But, I feel no anger toward for their actions. So, please don't punish them."

Hiashi looked at Naruto. "Very well then. I will not punish then on your request. But I ask, what is your purpose here today, Naruto?"

"I was wishing to leave a message with Hinata. Can I trust that she will get the message?" Hiashi gave him a curt nod. "I wish to tell Hinata that I am going on an escort mission to the Land of the Waves. I won't be in the village for a while so she should continue her training without me."

Hiashi frowned at what Naruto said. "What is this training that you are talking about?"

"Hinata and I train regularly after our missions and we help each other in our techniques. What we actually do, I will have to keep a secret." He bowed at Hiashi and the two guards and headed toward the village gates. Hiashi looked at the disappearing back of Naruto and wondered if he was the reason Hinata had more confidence and much stronger. He was still deep in thought when Hinata had come out to the front to see why her father was taking so long to meet her so they could train before she met her team for training. "Father, is something wrong?"

Hiashi snapped out of his thoughts and turned to Hinata. "Nothing is wrong, Hinata. Now, let's go train."

**-At village gate-**

Sakura and Sasuke were already waiting at the gate, with Sakura pestering Sasuke to go out on a date with her while Sasuke tried his best to not bash something in. Naruto arrived and Sakura screeched that he was late but Naruto just pointed out since Kakashi was not present, he was early. Kakashi, as if on cue, showed up with Tazuna in tow and they immediately started to set out.

They started out and they had set up a good pace. The group traveled and they passed by two puddles, which both Kakashi and Naruto had noted but did not act. The group passed by the puddles and two figures silently came out of them. They hooked their claws together with a long metal chain and silently dashed forward, wrapping their chain around Kakashi. All three genin turned around in time to see their sensei ripped to shreds. Both assailants laughed creepily and said, "One down…." They dashed forward ignoring the genin to hit kill their targets. They were about to wrap their chain around their target when they jumped back barely avoiding being decapitated. Naruto had pulled both swords and had his katana down at his side while his sakabato was crossed in front of him. Naruto had a dangerous look in his eyes. "Now stand down before I am forced to hurt you."

The assailants just laughed and charged Naruto. Naruto pulled his swords back preparing to strike when Sasuke jumped in front of Naruto, attempting to steal the glory that should have been rightfully his. Sasuke, being the arrogant idiot he was had not judged the distance correctly and the assailants were too close for him to do anything. Naruto cursed Sasuke and quickly moved forward, shoving Sasuke out of the way. Naruto barely blocked the claws in time and received two gashes oh the back of his hands. Naruto struggled to push up but was pinned down by the weight of both attackers bearing down on him. Kakashi suddenly appeared and pushed the head of both attackers together effectively knocking them out.

"Kakashi-sensei!!! You're okay!", said Sakura, who was standing in the same spot the entire time the small skirmish was happening, not bothering to help out in the fight. Sasuke, who had been knocked to the side, had gotten and was pissed off.

"Dobe, why the hell did you knock me off to the side? I was going to take them down myself."

Kakashi intervened in the situation. "Sasuke, as you said, you jumped in to attack but what you failed to notice was the distance between you and the attackers and you had no room to be able to prepare to attack so Naruto pushed you out of the way so that you wouldn't be impaled so he actually saved your life." Sasuke looked shocked and looked at Naruto, who looked at him sheepishly. "But to more pressing matters." He turned toward Tazuna and looked at him. "Tazuna-sama, in your mission request, it said you were asking for protection from bandits and thieves. As you saw, we were just attacked by two ninja, who just happened to be the Demon Brothers of the Mist, who are chunnin level shinobi. Now, I'm only going to ask once; why did you lie about the mission?"

Tazuna looked up in a defeated way. "In my country, we are currently being oppressed by a business man named Gato. He is a corrupt man who is only looking out for himself and his money. He has blockaded all of our ports and we have no means to trade and bring money in. When I build this bridge, it will connect our island to the mainland which would allow us to trade. But without the proper funds at hand to ask for more protection, we gathered up all the money we could and a C-ranked mission was the best we got."

Kakashi motioned his three genin towards to have a group discussion. "As you can see, this mission is obviously much more complicated than we thought. I'm pushing this mission up to a high B-rank. We are most likely going to be facing more opposition as we get closer to Wave country. I'm going to ask you guys if you want to move forward." Sasuke immediately put his opinion forward as he wanted the challenge of wanting to complete a higher mission and Sakura just tagged along with Sasuke. All eyes turned on Naruto who was still thinking when he nodded his head. Kakashi was about to stand up and tell Tazuna they would continue the mission when he heard Naruto say, "Under one condition."

"What condition would that be, Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"That we wait for backup to arrive. As powerful as we are, we don't know what else we are going to face next, so I think we should have another team assist us."

Kakashi thought for a moment. "Good idea, Naruto. I will write a message to tell him of our problem and where to send the team to meet us."

"Actually, do you mind if I do it? I been testing some new jutsu and I want to use them." He walked off to into the nearby forest and made sure that no one was nearby to see him doing a summon. He bit his finger and spread his blood across a scroll that Kyubbi had instructed him to make to be able to summon. He slammed his hand his hand down on the scroll. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!!!" A large plume of smoke appeared and Naruto looked hastily around to make sure no one had seen the smoke. Out of the smoke came a fox that had coughed a bit before looking up at Naruto. The fox stood at about three feet when sitting straight up, it had red fur with black at the tips of his ears and tail. The fox eyes Naruto suspiciously and asked, "Human, were you the one that summoned me?" Naruto bowed respectfully and nodded. "I see, you are the first person to ever be able to summon us foxes, but I want to know how you did it because there is no written record or a summoning scroll written."

"It is because I have Kyubbi, the nine-tailed fox sealed within me." The fox's eyes instantly narrowed and growled. "You lie, human. There is no way the greatest fox to walk the demon, summon, and mortal realm can be sealed within a measly boy." Naruto's body then slumped and a spirit form of Kyubbi appeared from Naruto and it showed itself to the fox. The fox gasped in surprise but quickly bowed his head in respect. **Is this enough proof that I have been sealed into this boy? **The fox nodded his head and bowed again to Kyubbi. **Good, then I expect all of our kind to listen and obey this boy as he has inherited my chakra and abilities. May one day, I will be able to meet you again. **She returned back into her cage back in Naruto's mind and Naruto jolted awake, rubbing his head.

"It seems you were talking the truth, young one. I hope you accept my deepest apologies in disrespecting you.", said the fox.

"Don't worry about it. Though I do have a favor for you, could you possibly be able to deliver a message for me? It needs to go back to Konoha and to the Hokage as quickly as possible and to be brought back with a response, who I am sure will not harm you. Be careful to avoid being seen because I'm pretty sure foxes a bad thing in Konoha." The fox gave what Naruto saw as a salute and quickly disappeared into the brush in the direction of Konoha. Naruto walked back, confident his message would come back soon.

Naruto walked out of the forest and saw they were setting up camp. Kakashi saw this and told him to go collect some firewood for the night. They finished setting up camp and proceeded to have dinner that was cooked by Naruto, which surprised everyone to how good it tasted. They all went into their respective tents and fell asleep.

-**The Next Morning-**

Naruto woke up to a scratching against his tent and he went to go see what he scratching was. He opened his tent and it was the fox he had summoned the day before and it had a scroll tied around its neck. He took the scroll and gave him a piece of meat that had been left over from dinner last night. The fox snapped up the meat and give a quick bow to return to the summon/demon world to spread the news of a new summoner.

Naruto sat back inside his tent and opened the scroll and read it. It said that backup would arrive by the time the message would get back to Naruto. And as if on cue, Team 8 appeared at the camp and looked around to see if any of Team 7 was awake. They were coming home from a patrolling mission when they had received a message to go back up Team 7 on a mission. They immediately changed their direction and headed out. Naruto walked out of his tent to greet Team 7 but had forgotten to put on a shirt and was only wearing his mask and a pair of shorts.

"Hello, you guys. I assume that you guys are our backup for our mission." Team 8 made no response and Naruto looked at them curiously. Hinata was looking away with a major blush on her face and she was covering her face. Shino looked impassive as he always did and Kiba was growling in distaste as he saw Hinata blush as she looked at Naruto's body, with Akamaru sleeping in his jacket. Kurenai just looked at Naruto with an odd look, wondering where he had gotten such a large scar from. Naruto followed their gazes and looked at himself and saw that he was only wearing a pair of shorts and he gave a shout and quickly darted back inside to put on more clothes. Hinata was hiding a nosebleed that she had received when she saw Naruto's body and thought _'Naruto-kun's body is so sexy. I wish I could just go up to him and-' _Her thoughts went too far and Hinata promptly fainted, which Shino caught her before she hit the ground.

The entire camp woke up to Naruto's scream, which resulted in a screaming Sakura, yelling that people should be quiet in the morning. Soon after, both teams and Tazuna were eating breakfast and Kakashi was explaining the situation to Kurenai and what they would be doing. Soon after, both teams set out with Kakashi and Kurenai taking the rear and the rest of the genin talking with each other, Naruto with Hinata; Sakura fawning over Sasuke; and Kiba trying to listen to what Hinata and Naruto were talking about with Shino nearby to stop anything drastic.

They soon came to a water edge where a single boat was waiting for them. The boat owner noticed the number and said, "I'm sorry but I can only hold a maximum of six people in this boat. Three of you will have to wait until I come back to pick you up." Kakashi gave a creepy eye-smile from behind his small orange book. "Don't worry, we will be able to handle it. Three of us can wait here."

"Wait, you and Kurenai-sensei can both walk on water, can't you? Why don't you walk across the water?", Naruto asked.

"Good point, Naruto. But that would still leave one person here waiting on this side.", stated Kurenai.

"There is no need to worry. Because I too can walk on water." He jumped out onto the water and all the ninja present except for Hinata expected him to sink into the water but he stayed on top.

"Well, that solves that problem." Kakashi pushed all the genin except for Naruto into the boat, along with Tazuna and told the boat owner to start going. The boat owner started and Naruto, Kakashi and Kurenai followed beside the boat. They landed on the other shore and Tazuna said they would be able to reach his house in a short while after passing through the forest. The group continued to travel in a relaxed mood when Naruto suddenly threw a kunai into the brush on the side of the road. The group tensed and Naruto went forward to get his kunai. He came back with his kunai back in his hand but also was carrying a shivering rabbit by its ears.

"Naruto, you baka. Why in the world did you have to go scare this poor rabbit?" Sakura said as she went to go get the rabbit from Naruto, but the instant she touched it, the rabbit bit her and attemped to run away only to run into Hinata's leg. Hinata picked up the rabbit and calmed it down, where it snuggled into her arms.

Kiba laughed openly at Naruto. "You are such a stupid idiot, Naruto. You thought a rabbit would be a threat to us." Naruto sent Kiba a sharp glare before throwing a piece of fabric into Kiba's face. Kiba was grabbed at his face to remove the piece of fabric from his face and made to yell at Naruto when he was cut off.

Naruto spoke in a low and deadly voice. "That came off of my kunai when I had thrown it into the brush. That means I had hit someone before they subsituted themselves with this rabbit. Naruto's eyes continued to dart around looking for anything suspicious. He looked behind the group and his eyes flashed. "Everyone, hit the ground!!!" Naruto grabbed Kiba; Kakashi pulled Tazuna and Sasuke down; and Kurenai pulled Hinata and Shino down. Sakura however was unaware of the situation and turned around to see a large sword flying though the air at her. Her eyes narrowed and she stood frozen in spot. Naruto saw this and quickly moved off the ground and dashed toward Sakura with inhuman speed. He jumped forward and tackled Sakura to the ground but not before receiving a large slash on his back due to the sword. Naruto fell to the ground in a heap and didn't move.

The sword continued to fly until it hit a tree and a figure appeared on top of it. A man wearing a pair of camo pants and bandages around his face, looked down at his target and his bodyguards. "This is the bodyguards that you got to protect yourself with, Tazuna?"

"All the genin, form a ring around Tazuna and protect him. Kurenai, go check on Naruto and patch up his wounds. I'll deal with enemy." All said genin jumped around Tazuna, with their various weapons and clan jutsus on standby. Kurenai rushed to Naruto, who was still facedown on the ground. She went closer to insepct his large wound on his back but saw that it was already healing itself at an accelerated pace but a scar was being left behind. Naruto slowly woke up and picked himself up off the ground. He used his hands and felt the scar in his back. "Dang it, and I just bought this shirt too."

Kurenai just looked bewildered. _'How in the world did he heal himself so fast? It is because of the nine-tailed fox? No time for that now, I have to go help Kakashi.' _She moved quickly to Kakashi and was standing shoulder to shoulder with him in a battle stance.

"Let me introduce myself. I am Zabuza, Demon of the Bloody Mist. I was hired to kill that old man behind you and no one is going to stop me. But it seems that you two think can, Copycat Kakashi and Genjutsu Mistress Kurenai. I will remove from this world and you want be able to see a thing. Kirigakure no Jutsu!!! (Hidden Mist Technique) A thick mist rolled out of nowhere and surrounded the two jounin and the genin, making them unable to see properly. Kakashi revealed his Sharingan and attempted to look through the mist with his eye but to no avail.

Zabuza's voice crpet out from the mist in a creepy and menacing voice. "Eight targets on the human body: Throat, Spinal column, lungs, liver, the jugular vein, the sub-clavian artery, kidney, heart. So many choices, what is a person to do?" The genin started to freeze up from the fear of Zabuza's voice but Naruto spoke out. "Do not give in to his mind games. He is trying to make us give up without giving a fight. If we are to die here today, then we fight and we will die proud shinobi of Konoha." All genin looked at him with confident eyes. "And besides, our jounin sensei wouldn't allowed us to be killed first without putting up a fight first."

Kakashi and Kurenai had both heard Naruto's speech and couldn't help but be inspired by what he said. But Zabuza had other thoughts. _'The blond one is annoying. He managed to actually put a spine in these Konoha wimps. I have to kill him first. _He silently moved toward Naruto.

Kakashi and Kurenai were trying to sense where Zabuza would strike and one thought flashed through theri minds simutaneously. _'Tazuna' _They instantly rushed to Tazuna's position right when Zabiza had appeared in front of Naruto and was swinging his sword down onto Naruto. "NARUTO!!!" was all Kakashi could say before Naruto was cleaved in two right before his very eyes. The genin had scattered by the time Zabuza had finsihed his attack but could not feel a terrible feeling wash over them. The jounin had frozen on spot and Zabuza took the time to knock them both into the lake nearby. They both came up, coughing up water and the water around them began to grow heavy. Zabuza appeared inbetween them and and with a water clone. "Suirou no Jutsu!!!" (Water Prison Technique) A sphere of water surrounded both Kakashi and Kurenai and both were held inside by Zabuza and his water clone. "And to think I would have a hard time fighting the famed Copcat and Genjutsu mistress. And now to finish my job."

He summoned several mizu bunshins and made them go after Tazuna. The bunshins charged forward to attack, swords held high, but they were soon dispersed by arrows that had struck each bunshin in the forehead. All ninja looked at the direction of where the arrows came from and saw Naruto, holding his bow. He put his bow back into its scroll and summoned out his sakabato out its scroll. His eyes changed had become much sharper than normal and their color had become much darker than from his normal bright blue. He placed it firmly on his hip and and was placed his right hand on the handle, prepared to draw and started to walk toward Zabuza. Zabuza did some one handed signs and more mizu bunshins were created. One charged Naruto and was quickly dispatched by a slash that was faster than anyone had seen before. Naruto moved forward with inhuman speed and all the the water clones soon fell back into puddles on the ground. He stopped at the edge of the bank and looked at Zabuza. "Release my sensei and Kurenai and I will let you leave in one piece. If not, you will face the consequences."

"Ha ha. Like a genin could take me down. I am Zabuza of the Bloody Mist. Would you like to now why Mist used to be called 'The Bloody Mist'?" Naruto just glared at Zabuza while the other genin looked interested. "It started back in the day before the council changed the rules. In the Academy when you trained to be shinobi, you were given a partner. You did everything with that partner. You ate together, you trained together and even shared the same bed. On the day of the graduation. you were given one task: to kill the one you had been partnered with for the last three years. Imagine two people that lived together and had grown close having to kill to survive. Unfornately that rule had to be changed after one year."

Sakura was ignorant enough to ask, despite feeling chill travel down her spine. "Why did they change the rule?"

Zabuza let out a cruel laugh. "I'm glad you asked. One year, there were over a hundred students but they were all slaughtered by one child who wasn't even a ninja yet. Guess who that boy was?" He paused for a second. "That was me." All the genin eyes widened in fear while Naruto just closed his eyes. "That's right. Fear me. You genin don't have chance against me and I when finish off your senseis and I will come and hunt you all down."

All the genin made to run with Tazuna in two but Naruto stopped them. "Where are you guys going especially you Sakura and Sasuke? I thought Kakashi told us that shinobi that break the rules are trash but people who are abandoning their comrades are worse than trash?" All genin stopped in their tracks and looked at Naruto. Kakashi would have given Naruto a thumbs-up if he wasn't trapped in the water sphere. "It's time for you to be defeated, Zabuza. If you haven't noticed, you are in a very vunerable position. You are standing still and held in one place but your jutsu. So good luck trying to avoid my attacks." He dashed across the water and Zabuza hastily pulled his sword from his back and when Naruto got in range, he tried a horizontal slash but all he had hit was air.

"Your as large as it is, can only attack in two way, wether by slashing sideways or slashing downward leaving very few modes of attack; making it very easy to predict." Zabuza looked behind him and saw that Naruto was sitting on his sword. Naruto instantly reacted and attacked by slashing Zabuza across his back and launched him away from the sphere, effectively breaking the jutsu. Naruto also destroyed the water clone that kept Kurenai trapped freeing her also. Zabuza was able to keep on the surface of the water but was faced with two jounins and a genin that he had severaly underestimated. He quickly turned and started to run, hopingto escape to fight another day. Kurenai, Kakashi and Naruto quickly gave chase and they had managed to slow Zabuza with well-aimed kunai. They sooned trapped Zabuza against the trunk of a tree and closed in on him.

"Well, it seems that today you will see death.", said Kakashi.

"Screw you, I will never die. I will not let-" Two senbons needles flew down and struck Zabuza clean in the throat and he fell to the ground, his eyes losing their color. A mist hunter ninja apeared in a tree and said, "I thank you Konoha shinobi for helping me take down Zabuza. I had been tracking him for quite a while and only now have I been able to land the finishing blow." The hunter ninja walked over to Zabuza's body and picked it up. "Now if you will excuse, I must dispose of this body."

"Of course, hunter nin. I expect us to see each other soon though.", replied Naruto. The hunter ninja stiffened at Naruto's statement but dissapeared nonetheless. Kakashi then grabbed his head and soon collasped due to overexposure of his sharingan eye. Kurenai and Naruto caught him and carried him over to the genin where they were waiting.

**-With the hunter nin and Zabuza's body-**

The hunter ninja was humming and opening a pack of dissection tools. "Hmm, how to dissect the body?"

Zabuza got off the ground. "Drop the act, Haku." He grabbed the senbon and pulled them out roughly.

"Zabuza-sama, you shouldn't pull them out so hard. You might actually kill yourself. Your wounds need to heal also.", said Haku.

"How long?", asked Zabuza.

"About a week, Zabuza-sama."

"Good." _'I will soon have my revenge on the Konoha ninja.'_

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Alright then. I think I wrote more than usual this time. Right now I'm going to take the time to reveal some stuff that will be happening so that I don't forget. 1.Hinata will be combining a martial arts form with juuken, with my own varitions that invole flowly movements and dodging. Guess what style I'm basing it off on. 2. Sasuke will be running away to Orichimaru but I won't reveal what happens just yet. 3. Sasuke will be a arrogant prick but he will have a change of heart. When is for me to know and for you to eventually read. As for pairings, I think about making it a HakuxHinataxNaruto (Haku is female) but I'm still debating it. I may briefly touch on other pairings but not right now. Naruto will be using moves of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu and Battojutsu if anyone is wondering why I haven't touched on them yet. Review please and not really short responces. ANything is fine as long as you don't totally abuse my story. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Until next time, peace out.

Next chapter: Jealously, Anger, and a rejection and a approval


	6. Rejection, Acceptance and Understanding

Ch.6

Rejection, Acceptance and Understanding

Several people in their reviews talked about how I am making Sasuke a complete wimp and a dick. But I going to say in my defense that Sasuke will turn over a new leaf throughout the story. His changes in attitude and other stuff are going to start happening though as a very slow pace. The first should start this chapter or next chapter.

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Tazuna led the exhausted ninja to his house that sat by a water edge. Narrator was carrying Kakashi with the help of Sasuke, and the rest followed behind. Tazuna opened the door and was greeted by his daughter. "Father, you have arrived home now. And who are the people that are behind you?"

"They are the ninja we hired for my protection. They will be staying here for a while." He turned around. "You can put Kakashi down in one of the spare bedrooms upstairs so that he can rest. Until then, you can go see the city a bit before Tsunami finishes so that we can eat dinner." Sasuke muttered something about needing to go train and Sakura followed him, like a lost puppy. Naruto had asked Hinata if she would like to go to explore the city, which she accepted after much stuttering and they both left the house. Kiba followed Hinata and Naruto after waiting several seconds and muttered something under his breath. Shino put several of his bugs on Kiba to keep an eye on him and went outside to look for bugs native this region. Kurenai just went upstairs to rest and to keep an eye on Kakashi.

**-In the City-**

Naruto and Hinata were walking around the city and observing everything. Everyone was walking with depressed looks and everyone's clothing each had some level of shabbiness. A man crept up next to Naruto and attempted to reach into his bag to try to steal something of worth but was stopped when Naruto spun around and grabbed the man's wrist. "I suggest you try to steal from someone else, sir. Or better yet, give up your life as a thief and try to forge a new one." Naruto let go of his hand and the man scurried off and disappeared in a crowd. Naruto saw a dango shop and led Hinata to it, buying several sticks and led Hinata over to a bench that no one was occupying. "Wow, the situation is really bad in this town."

Hinata only looked at Naruto's with curious eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

"Hinata, look at this town. You don't see any smiles or any children playing in the streets. Everyone walking the streets either have little money to spend or they are trying to steal to survive. Its seems that Gato know that this is happening and is just waiting for the right moment to kill Tazuna to send this town down into a hell hole and to control it with an iron fist." There was a long silence as Naruto and Hinata continued to eat their dango. Naruto then pulled out a scroll out of one of his pockets and summoned up his flute. He put it to his lips and played a few notes before starting to play a full song. Hinata just stared at Naruto before she felt the need to dance to the song. Their performance soon started to attract people, mostly younger children at first who were attracted by Hinata's dancing which involved many hand and arm motions and her entire bodying spinning around. Adults were attracted by the music that was being played and found themselves watching the performance with awed eyes. Naruto and Hinata were so caught up in what they were doing that they did not notice they were being watched until Naruto had finished the song. The crowd that had gathered clapped and cheered for such a beautiful performance. Hinata blushed with so many people looking at her and Naruto just rubbed the back of his head, giving the crowd thanks for watching them.

The crowd soon dispersed and Naruto and Hinata were left alone again. "So, Hinata, I suppose we should go back to Tazuna's house, then?" Hinata silently nodded and they both headed off. As they were walking nearby the forest, they both heard someone that was crying. They went to investigate and saw that Sakura was sitting with her knees pulled close to her, tears falling down her face. Naruto walked up to her and placed an arm on her shoulder. "Sakura, what's wrong?" Sakura looked up and dived into Naruto's arms, bawling her eyes out. Naruto looked bewildered as he tried to find some way out of the situation. "Sasuke-kun told me he doesn't like me and that I should leave him alone. He called me useless and not worthy of being a shinobi!!! What am I going to do?" She continued to cry. Naruto's eyes hardened and he asked sternly, "What happened?"

-**Flashback-**

Sakura was hiding behind a tree, observing Sasuke with hearts in her eyes. Sasuke was currently throwing shuriken and kunai at a makeshift target and all the weapons had hit right on target. Sakura squealed when she saw Sasuke do all of his moves perfectly. Sasuke's eyes shifted slightly when he had heard Sakura squeal therefore making his final kunai completely off aim. Sasuke scowled angrily and walked up to Sakura with an angry look. "Will you please get lost?"

Sakura could only look in shock as the crush of her life told her to go away, but it didn't stop there." I can't believe a useless girl like you ever became a shinobi. Sure, you had the highest grades in the class, but they doesn't mean anything in the real world. All of your skills are below average and compared to me and Naruto, you are the weakest link. So, why don't you go somewhere else and don't bother me because I will never go out on a date with a weak girl like you." said Sasuke with the most venom he could muster. Sakura had tears coming out of here eyes and ran off in the forest to get away from Sasuke. Sasuke watched her run off with a smirk on his face.

**-Flashback end-**

Naruto straightened up and picked Sakura up also. "I see, Sakura." He let go of Sakura and she stood up on her own, although she was still crying. "Don't listen to Sasuke, Sakura." Sakura looked up to look at Naruto. "You have potential to be a great ninja. You just haven't realized it. Pining after Sasuke has not helped your situation and it will only continue to harm your skills."

Sakura looked down at this statement. "But I lo-"

Naruto cut her off. "Sakura, I never said to not pursue Sasuke in a manner that is beyond teammates, but do not let it consume your life to the extent it will be bringing down yourself and the team. Hinata, could you please take Sakura back to the house? I still have some business to attend too." Hinata nodded and led Sakura with a comforting arm around Sakura. Hinata turned around in time to see Naruto disappear in a swirl of leaves.

-**With Sasuke's training-**

Sasuke was now currently pummeling a tree with kicks and punches, wondering why he was not as strong as Naruto and why he didn't have the power to kill Itachi yet. He suddenly felt a fist connect with his face and he flew back several feet. He hit the ground and his tasted blood in his mouth. She propped himself up with his arms and saw Naruto approaching him, eyes gleaming red. _'The dobe want to fight. Ha, this will be an easy win.' _Sasuke jumped up and dashed at Naruto, fist cocked back to punch Naruto in the face. Naruto moved his body slightly to the side and Sasuke completely missed his target. Naruto quickly summoned out his bow and arrow and shot several quick shots at Sasuke. Sasuke had almost run into a tree after he had missed Naruto with his punch and turned around to face Naruto again, only to see several arrows flying at him. He covered his face instinctively but the arrows had hit his clothes instead and pinned him up against a tree. "Dobe, let me go from this tree." '_So I can kick your ass'_

"How about no, Sasuke? Is that a word that you hear a lot or it is a word you refuse to hear?" He walked up to Sasuke and glared at him for a few seconds. "The reason why I have currently pinned you up against the tree is because of what you did to Sakura."

Sasuke just scoffed and said, "What about her? She just a weak girl that is a hindrance." Naruto walked and gave another hook to Sasuke's face.

"So, that is all you see her as, a weak girl? You don't see her as a teammate, a comrade? I know that she likes you but there was not reason to reject her. You could of just declined and say you weren't interested and she would have backed off. But no, you had to deny her in the most evil way you could think. You are worse than trash, Sasuke.", replied Naruto coldly.

"How dare you say that to me? I have done nothing to her and she will probably be back here pestering me again soon.", countered Sasuke.

"Are you so blind that you failed to notice that you sent Sakura away crying her eyes out? Are you that heartless you would disregard everyone that cares about you or consider you a friend? Would you just throw their lives away so that you could gain power, Sasuke?" Sasuke tried to think of an answer or a comment to say back, but he couldn't. "I will take your silence as an answer that you don't consider me or Sakura as tools that can be thrown away at a moment's notice." Naruto walked up to the tree and removed the arrows and Sasuke just sank to the ground in deep thought. "Just remember this, even though I don't consider you a close friend, we are still teammates which means I will lay my life down for you if the situation ever rises as I am sure Sakura would too. The question is will you be able to put down pride, work for the team and sacrifice yourself if needed?" Sasuke gave no answer and continued to sit there. Naruto turned around and walked back in the direction of Tazuna's house.

**I must say, Naruto, you sure gave the Uchiha boy a lot to think about and it seems you may have changed him for the better. **

_'I hope so, Kyubbi. I hope so.'_

-**At Tazuna's house-**

Kiba was muttering darkly about a certain blond haired boy and how he was a girl stealer while Shino continued to eye him with a careful eye. Hinata and Sakura had come back and Sakura had calmed down by then, leaving only a red face and slightly unkempt hair as proof that she had been crying. Naruto returned with an impassive look on his face and asked if Kakashi had woken up yet. Everyone shook their head and Naruto sat down at the table.

Tsunami soon announced that dinner was to be served and everyone sat down at the table, with the exception of Sasuke who was still out in the forest somewhere and Kakashi who was still resting. The dinner passed in relative silence as everyone ate when the door opened and a young boy walked into the house. He looked at the fellow shinobi at the table and gave them a scoff. Tazuna spoke up, "Inari, why don't you introduce yourself to the shinobi that I have hired?"

Inari gave a glare at the shinobi, "Why should I? They are all going to end dead at Gato's hand anyways." He looked at the food on the table. "I'm not hungry." He walked up the stairs and disappeared out of sight. A deafening silence washed over the table before Hinata asked, "Why did Inari act like that?" Tazuna and Tsunami looked at each other but couldn't bring themselves to say anything.

Naruto stood up and walked to a set of picture that lined the wall. His eyes settles on one that had Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari but also an unfamiliar man. They were all smiling in the picture. Naruto thought for a second and said, "Inari's behavior probably involves this man in the picture here, right?"

Tazuna could only look away before saying, "You're right, Naruto. A while back, that man was a hero to this town and Inari saw him as a hero and a father figure. He wasn't Inari biological father but it was the closest thing to Inari could have had. Tsunami was going to ask to be married to him soon after that photograph but something happened. That man openly opposed Gato and Gato made sure to remove him. One day, he was shown as a traitor and a thief and Inari had to watch as his hero and his father figure being denounced as a traitor. He was executed right in front of Inari's eyes and Inari has changed since that day. He was no longer a happy child and he always keeps to himself, no matter what Tsunami and I try to do." The genin all seemed affected to a certain degree and Naruto silently walked up the stairs to try and have a talk with Inari.

Naruto came to Inari's room but paused when he heard crying coming form the room. He opened the door to create a small slit and looked inside. He saw Inari, on a table that was facing a table and he was clutching something to his chest. Naruto decided not to go in and let the small boy cry out his emotions.

-**The Next Morning-**

Kakashi woke up rubbing his head and wondering how long he had been sleeping. He saw that he was in a futon and got dressed in his clothes that were nearby. He walked down the stairs and appeared in the dining room where all the genin and Kurenai were eating breakfast. Kakashi caught Kurenai's eyes and it conveyed that they needed to talk. Kurenai got up from her seat and met Kakashi in the hall to talk. A few minutes later, they came back and both motioned to their genin to follow them. They stopped in a clearing in the forest and the genin stopped in front of their senseis.

"Today, we are going to be training you. We want you to climb trees without using your hands.", said Kakashi.

"How in the world are we going to climb trees without our hands?" asked Kiba brashly.

"Like this." Kakashi started to walk up the tree along with Kurenai and they soon stopped on a branch. They also stuck to the branch upside down. "You are to use your chakra to stick onto the tree. You need to focus your chakra to the bottom of your feet so that you will be able stick on. Too much and the tree will push you off. Too little and then you won't be able to stick on. I suggest that you get a running start." Kakashi and Kurenai each threw three kunai to the students. "Mark the tree each time you are forced off or you fall off."

All the genin focused their chakra to the bottom of their feet and everyone except for Naruto and dashed up the tree. Kiba immediately crashed into the forest floor after three steps. Shino and Sasuke had gotten up a good 20 feet before being forced off. Hinata and Sakura had reached a branch at a very high point of their tree and were now looking down at the boys. Naruto had still to attempt to try to climb the tree. Naruto kept his eyes closed and slowly started to walk up the tree. All eyes followed as he continued up the tree without falling off and he ended up and the tip of the tree balancing on one foot. The very least to say that everyone was shocked that Naruto could do such a feat and he jumped from branch to branch until he was down on the ground again.

"Kakashi-sensei, would it okay for me to go train by myself now?" Kakashi just nodded his head and Naruto respectfully bowed and left the clearing with eyes all looking at him with varying degrees of emotions. All the other genin continued to do tree climbing.

**-Later on in the day-**

Hinata was looking for Naruto and she had found him balancing on a kunai that was rammed into the ground by a single finger. Sweat was falling freely from his face as he maintained his focus on his balance and chakra output. Hinata could only watch as Naruto continued to stay in that position for another half hour before he pushed himself off and laid on the ground, panting heavily. Hinata walked over and took out a piece of cloth that she carried around and knelt down next to him and wiped the sweat off his face. Naruto's face stiffened for a moment but relaxed when he saw that it was Hinata. Hinata continued to wipe his face until it was mostly clean and sat down next to Naruto. They continued to sit in silence when Naruto got back up and stretched his muscles. "How would you like to spar, Hinata? I would like to see how your training has gone?"

Hinata nodded and stood up, getting into her own stance, with her legs spread out and arms in front, bent at the elbow. Naruto stepped back with his fists, his left in front and his right by his hip. He dashed forward and threw his right forward. Hinata quickly sidestepped his attack and gave Naruto a palm strike to his shoulder that threw him off balance. Naruto quickly regained his balance and dashed back at Hinata, who this time took the hit but had jumped back at the same time therefore lessening the damage in which he struck back at Naruto with palm strikes to the inside of Naruto's arms. She quickly spun around after her strikes and kicked Naruto solidly in the stomach, sending him away again. Naruto landed on his feet but his arms felt numb and he felt very little chakra flowing through them. _'Well, it seems Hinata had been training very hard in her new style and its starting to show now. Seems she can close tenketsu with her palms. I wonder what else she can do. _Naruto stood up again and flexed his fingers preparing to do a technique he had chanced upon when training against a dummy. He usually left dents in the dummy but that one instance had shattered the area around the impact. He immediately started to investigate what had happened and after several weeks of training, he managed to solve what was needed to do it to duplicate the punch. He grinned from behind his mask and disappeared in a flash.

Hinata who had been watching Naruto the entire time gasped in surprise and quickly started scanning her surroundings to locate Naruto. She felt something behind her and dodged on instinct. Naruto had appeared from behind and had thrown a punch had missed. He continued to attack and Hinata skillfully dodged or pushed Naruto hands to the side whenever he attacked. She kept dodging backward and soon found her back against a tree. She looked as Naruto bearing down on her and right before she was hit, she dodged off to the side, striking Naruto left arm with several juuken strikes. Her eyes widened after her attack when Naruto's attack connected with a tree and an entire section of the tree exploded into splinters. Her shock left her open and she felt that Naruto was rearing back to punch her and she didn't make any attempt to block the attack other than close her eyes waiting for the impact. She waited for several seconds but didn't feel any sort of contact and opened her eyes. Naruto had his fist in front of her but was grinning under his mask. "Well, it seems that I have won this little match, Hinata." He put his fist down and stretched his muscles, trying to get the feeling back in his muscles that had been struck. "But you are the taijutsu user. Your form was almost flawless and your movements helped lead you from one to another. Keep working on it and you could be one of the best taijutsu user. But it never hurts to learn ninjutsu and genjutsu, too. Do that and you could also become one of the best kunochi Konoha had ever produced."

Hinata blushed at the compliments that Naruto was giving her but snapped out when Naruto continued to groan and stretch his muscles. "Can't see to get rid of the soreness in my muscles..."

"Perhaps if I massaged it, you would feel better?" squeaked out Hinata. Naruto looked at Hinata with curious eyes and nodded his head. Hinata walked up to Naruto and motioned him to sit down. He sat down cross-legged in the grass and Hinata sat down behind him and started to massage his back, in which Naruto relaxed in Hinata's hand. This continued for several minutes and Naruto soon felt all his muscles were relaxed and turned around to thank Hinata. When Naruto had turned around, Hinata was leaning forward to be able to relax Naruto further and without any support to keep her up, she fell down on top of Naruto. There faces were inches from each other and Hinata was blushing. She slowly moved her hand to Naruto's mask and started to pull away at his mask and Naruto made no movements to stop her. She slowly started to pull it back but stopped when she suddenly fainted. She fell onto Naruto's chest and Naruto could only lie still wondering what could of happened.

**"Well, it seems my little Naruto has finally found a love interest. I can only wonder how this will turn out.", said Kyubbi from inside her "cage".**

**-Several hours later at Tazuna's house-**

Everyone had come back to the house, eating dinner when Naruto came in carrying Hinata bridal style.

Kiba instantly attacked, "What did you do to her, Naruto? I swear if you took advantage of her, I will rip from limb to limb."

Naruto glared back. "If you must know, Hinata and I were training with each other and she had passed out from chakra exhaustion." Naruto knew he was lying but hoped that everyone else would believe him. Everyone made some form of approval except for Kiba who growled at Naruto's answer. Naruto gave an inward sigh or relief and walked up the stairs to put Hinata into her futon.

He went into the room that the girls were staying in and placed tried to place Hinata into her futon but she didn't seems to want to let go of Naruto. Naruto struggled for several minutes before he gave up and decided to just let Hinata sleep and hoped someone would come up to help separate soon.

**-An hour later-**

Kurenai had decided to come up after the dinner to check where Naruto had gone and when she opened the door, she was greeted with one of the most cutest scenes she had ever seen. Hinata was sleeping on the crook of Naruto's neck with her arms wrapped around his waist while Naruto was sleeping wit his head on top of Hinata's head and arms wrapped around her shoulder. Kurenai pulled out a camera and took a picture, persevering this moment forever.

Naruto snapped awake when he heard the camera click and Kurenai was putting away something in her pouch. He eyed Kurenai suspiously and asked, "What did you just do?"

"Nothing, Naruto."_ I now possess the cutest photo in the world. MUWHAHAHAHAHA. _Naruto made continued to look at her but looked away to look at Hinata.

"Kurenai-sensei, could you please help try to get Hinata off of me?" Kurenai walked over and put her hands on Hinata's shoulders and started to pull her off, but Hinata resisted and latched on to Naruto even more. Naruto leaned in and whispered something, which relaxed Hinata and she let go without any resistance. Naruto got up and bowed toward Kurenai. "I will see you tommorrow, Kurenai-sensai." And he left the room.

-**The next morning-**

Sasuke had gotten up early to continue to master tree climbing and was now starting to get frustrated as he looked at all the marks on his tree. He tried running up again and made a few inches farther than his last marks. He yelled in frustration and punched the ground, effectively bruising it. Now, he had a bruised hand along with the problem of tree walking. He heard chuckling behind him and whipped around to see Naruto behind him. "Well, it seems that even the genius Sasuke is having problems climbing a tree."

Sasuke threw his kunai at Naruto, only to have it caught and thrown back at his feet. "So are you going to ask for help or are you going to stay frustrated and continue to do perform poorly?" Sasuke threw a glare at Naruto and was about to send him away when Naruto's speech flashed through his mind. "What do I need to do, Naruto?"

"First of all, you should calm yourself, so that you can focus your chakra better. After that, you should feel the chakra concentrated at the bottom of your feet before actually attempting to climb. Once you get the feel, you shold climb the tree and then adjust the chakra amount if you fall off or if you are pushed off." Naruto stated. Sasuke did everything Naruto had said and found himself perfroming better and was able to reach 10 feet farther after several tries. He turned around to thank Naruto but he had already disappeared.

-**Over the next several days-**

With everyone completing the tree climbing exercise, everyone were assigned in pairs for guard duty of Tazuna and his workers, in case that there was an attack. The rest of the time was either used to train or relax, which a certain Inzuka did a lot stating that he didn't need to train as he was already powerful. Sakura, who realized what Naruto was true, started to improve herself through training. Sasuke was working on his own jutsu in order to improve and maybe be able to improvise. Shino had decided to work oh his clan jutsu. Naruto and Hianta however were a mystery to Kakashi and Kurenai who had gotten information on there students except for them two. Naruto just said he would go train and would be back for his guard duty along with Hinata who had the same story.

**-Later at night-**

A sexually androgynous figure was currently picking their way through the forest, looking for certain herbs that could aid in healing when the person stumbled upon Naruto who was currently resting. Naruto rubbed his eyes and looked around and saw this person in front of him.

"You know, you are going to get a cold if stay out in this weather too long." said the figure whos voice couldn't really be identifeid as male or female.

Naruto stood up and brushed off any dust that had collected on him. "I thank you for the advice, but why are you out at this late hour?"

"I'm currently looking for herbs and plants that I can use to make some healing salves and the sort."

"I see, would you like some help?", asked Naruto.

"That would be nice." Naruto and the the figure searched for for about a half hour, filling up the basket with many differents herbs and plants. Naruto held out his hand and the figure put thier hand into his hand, shaking. "It was nice to meet you, uh- what is your name?"

"My name is Haku."

"I see Haku or should I say hunter nin?" Haku tensed and prepared to throw senbons at an instant notice. "I am not here to attack but to rather get information." Haku didn't relax one bit and continued to be tense. "Obviously, you don't want to relax so I will start with my questions anyways."

"First things first, why is a girl like you, onw with a natural caring nature doing with a missing-nin like Zabuza?"

"What makes you think that I am a girl? For all you know, I could be a guy." Haku snapped back.

"Don't kid yourself. Just accept that you are a girl and if you are a boy like you say, take off your shirt."

Haku blushed and instinctively covered her chest. "That's what I thought. Now that we have gotten yor gender down, why did you hide your gender and why are you working for Zabuza?"

Haku looked down and said, "Becasue in a shinobi world, women are looked down upon more than men are. Women who become shinobi can be viewed as the strongest in whatever they do but thye are often overshadowed by the achievements of men. No doubt there are women who had made great achievements, but they are outnumbered by the achivevement of men. As for Zabuza, he was the first person to see as a human being and some piece of trash on the road." Naruto at this point had already heard all the pain and sadness Haku had been through. "He took me in but I disguised myself as a boy to appear strong and not allow my female side to show. Zabuza has not yet found out my secret and but yet you, a genin had found out. What is your name?"

"My name is Naruto Himura Uzumaki and I have seen and experienced more than I show." He looked around and noted it was already dark. "Well, Haku, I hope when we meet again, we won't be enemies and we can talk more." _Because I can tell that you are in need of much healing._

"I thank you for the offer, Naruto." _I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm afraid our next meeting will be our last though I hope it won't. _

--------------------

Don't know if that qualifies as a cilffhanger but I don't really care. I would also like to know if my fighting scenes are boring, good, will be taken to heart about fight scenes. Don't know the next time I will be able to update do to pressure from college classes. Please review and give any comments, complaints or praise to my story. Any advice would be helpful. Cookies to whoever can figure out the technique that Naruto was using in his spar with hinata. (Hint: it from Ruronin Kenshin) Until nest time, Peace out.


	7. Battle of the Bridge

CH

CH.7

Title Needed

Naruto was eating dinner with Team Seven and Team Ten when Inari had walked through the door and stalked his way over to his seat. He stared down at the food placed down in front of him for a little while before he burst out. "I don't get why all you people are here. Gato is just going to kill you all and win again!"

All the ninja just looked at him with different looks in their eyes by said nothing in response, except for one. "So, what you want for us to do if to just surrender, leave this town and continue to let Gato terrorize this town?" Naruto said in a calm voice. "Do you want us to forget the hard work that Tazuna has already put into the bridge and the sacrifices this village has given for a second chance?"

"What do you know about living like this? Living in fear? Losing the person you admired most?" Inari screamed back.

Naruto had grown deathly silently at this statement. "So, at least you knew who your parents were. Mine had disappeared after I had born, so I didn't know who they were. I was always under the protection of ninja when I was young before I was taken away from the village by my sensei and "father". Even then it wasn't easy, always traveling and training in harsh conditions and facing death every time we met with bandits or missing nins. Coming back to my village several years later, I was still met with harsh glares and whispers for something I was unaware about. Then my sensei left to go travel the world again without me and I was forced to live alone again, fending for myself. And now, you are coming to me saying that you have suffered so much? Try living in my how I live and you would see what it means to suffer." Naruto gave Inari a dark glare that made everyone shiver before he got up from his seat and went upstairs, leaving everyone looking at his back with a dead silence.

There was silence around the table for a minute before Sakura spoke out, "Is that true, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Honestly, Sakura, I can't tell you. Naruto's past is shrouded and I doubt even the Hokage knows much about what happened in his time away."

Hinata had quietly slipped away from the table to go find Naruto. She looked into his room but didn't find him but noticed that the window was open and music was drifting in. She went over and poked her head out and Naruto was sitting on the roof, playing his flute. Hinata made to climb up but decided not to and just stay inside by the window listening to Naruto's playing.

**The Next Day**

Kakashi and Kurenai were walking with Tazuna and the genin except for Naruto who they had decided to allow him take the day off after yesterday's speech. They arrived at the bridge and Tazuna saw all of workers either dead or unconscious. Tazuna ran up to one of the workers who was still conscious. He grabbed his shoulder and pulled his face up to his. "Who did this to you?"

The man rasped out, "A demon." He collapsed onto the ground and Tazuna let of the man's shirt. A mist started to roll in and everyone tensed up and the genin surrounded Tazuna. Kakashi and Kurenai both looked through the mist and saw two figures.

"Well, Well, its seems that Kakashi is strong enough to fight again. But, I know how to defeat you and the women now and my apprentice will take each of your students with no problem." said Zabuza.

"Are you sure about that? If I remember correctly, you were the one who barely escaped with their life last time and you think you are going to win this time?" Kakashi replied.

"You think I came unprepared this time? Why do you think I summoned this mist? If you can't see me, you can use your Sharingan and the women can't use her genjutsu which mean I have removed your strongest moves already. Haku here will just finish off your weak genin and we will get paid for our job." Haku dashed forward and pulled out senbons and threw them at Tazuna with perfect aim. Sasuke and Hinata both pulled out two kunai and blocked all the senbons. They both looked at each other simultaneously before dashing forward to engage Haku.

**Meanwhile, with Naruto**

Naruto woke up to a sudden clatter and commotion outside and quickly dressed himself. He put all of his gear on and quietly crept down the stairs stopping several steps to listen to what was happening.

"If you even kill my son, I'll bite my tongue in half and drown myself in my own blood."

"Fine, lady. Tazuna wants a live hostage anyways. Be lucky your mom is doing this for you, or else you would be dead." There was the sound of feet moving and a door being closed." Naruto quickly walked down the rest of the stairs and saw the back of Inari just go out the door after Tsunami. Naruto quickly followed and saw Inari facing off before two men who were wielding katana. "Well, it seems the little boy wants to meet his death. Just remember that we warned you."

One of the men charged Inari and Inari could only stand and watch as the man rushed him, katana prepared to swing down. He closed his eyes but he heard a clang of metal and opened them up again. He saw Naruto with his katana out blocking the swordsman's strike and pushed him away.

"You men will die today for trying to involve innocents in your master's plots. Do you have any last words?" The swordsmen were about scoff and go and kill Naruto until they looked at Naruto again and instantly started to fear for their lives. Naruto had waves of killing intent directed at them and his eyes were a deep amber, with slits for his pupils.

One of the swordsmen cried out, "If you move another step, we will kill the women." He put his blade to Tsunami's throat to prove his point.

"Useless." Naruto said before disappearing.

Both swordsmen frantically looked around before the one holding Tsunami gave a cry of pain having being cut is half from behind. The other swordsman pulled out his sword futilely before he saw Naruto dash as him. He swung his sword down hoping to hit him and he actually made contact or that what it seemed before that Naruto disappeared. Naruto appeared behind him and sheeted his sword. When the hand guard touched the sheath, the man fell into two separate pieces on the ground. Inari ran over to Tsunami who swept him up into a hug and cried into her shoulder.

"Inari." Inari looked over at Naruto, whos back was facing him. "About yesterday, I apologize for yelling at you. I know how hard a life like your can be but that doesn't mean you should run away from all your problems. Your would-be father could have had said the same thing. He faced Gato knowing he would eventually face the consequences of his actions but he didn't care as long as it was for the town. He lived a life that should be honored Inari, not one to be cried over. But today, you showed some of his courage by rushing out to face the swordsmen knowing you were severely outmatched." Naruto looked at the dead bodies for a moment. "It seems now that Gato has made his move and that means…" Naruto's eyes flashed in realization. "I must leave now. Remember what I said, Inari." And he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

-**Back at the Bridge-**

Sasuke and Hinata were trapped inside a dome of ice mirrors and had several senbons in various areas of their body and both were breathing very heavily. All attempts to attack Haku were repelled and Hinata and Sasuke were forced to play defensive. Hinata's Byakugen was starting to become strained and she could only barely see faint amount of charka but couldn't pinpoint the source. Sasuke's Sharingan had activated in the middle of the battle and he was using it also to track Haku and was slowly catching on to Haku's movements.

Naruto who was now nearing the bridge noticed the ice mirrors and dashed forward to assist whoever was inside the ice mirrors.

Haku saw Naruto approaching at a quick pace had decided to finish the two off before he arrived. She pulled back her hands with two senbons in each and threw one pair at Hinata. Naruto arrived at the dome to see the senbons hit their target. Hinata fell to the ground and Naruto rushed over, not paying attention to Haku who was aiming for him.

Naruto was holding Hinata's body when Hinata whispered out, "Naruto before I go, I want to tell you something." Naruto looked at her and she leaned closer to his ear. "I want to say that I lo-"Hinata's voice cut off and she fell limp in Naruto's hands.

Sasuke was moved at this sight but felt a sudden spike of killing intent. He turned and saw Haku aiming senbon needles at Naruto. Sasuke saw this and a thought unconsciously flashed through his mind. _Sakura and I would be willing give up our lives to save yours. The question is would you be willing to do the same if the situation arises?_ The thought flashed through Sasuke's mind repeatedly until he moved forward.

Naruto felt an attack coming from behind but made no movements to dodge. He suddenly felt his body being pushed aside and he turned his head in shock to see Sasuke being hit in the throat with the senbon needles. Naruto could only look on in shock as he saw another one of his friends die with any way to save them. He heard Sasuke whisper and he rushed over, "I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm sorry for being such an arrogant jerk and not accepting your friendship from the beginning. You helped to change that but it seems it all going to end now." And with that said, Sasuke closed his eyes forever.

Naruto started to feel rage build up in him as he saw Hinata and Sasuke lie, cold and motionless. A giant plume of red chakra exploded from Naruto and his fox features started to reform. Haku tried to attack Naruto while this was happening but the attacks were all repelled by the chakra. Kyubbi inside Naruto was trying to get Naruto to calm down but his rage was blocking her from effectively communicating. _**Seems I will need to wait this out and talk to him when his mind is not clouded by rage.**_

Naruto stood up and faced Haku, who was in her ice mirror trying to figure out what to do. Naruto's eyes had become a deep crimson and he looked at Haku, with eyes of hate and summoned both swords, his sakabato in his left with a reverse grip and his katana in his right. He spoke out in a threatening voice, "Today, Haku, for taking the lives of two people important to me, you will face my wrath and you will wish that you were never alive." Naruto disappeared in a flash and Haku looked around to see where Naruto had gone. Her shinobi senses started to flash dangerously and she jumped out of the mirror into a different one when the one she was previously occupying was slashed in half by Naruto. Naruto landed on the ground and looked at the remaining mirrors and disappeared again and slashed again at the mirror Haku was in only to have her dodge at the last second into another mirror.

-With Kurenai and Kakashi-

Both of them turned their heads in alarm when they felt the same sickening chakra from 13 years ago. They both thought at the same time. _Has the nine-tailed fox escaped from his prison? It's time for us to finish this. _They both looked at each other and nodded knowing what each had to do. Kakashi pulled out a scroll from one of his jacket's pocket. Kurenai moved forward and Kakashi smeared blood over the scroll. "Kyiouchuse no jutsu!!" There was a large puff of smoke and nine unseen objects moved toward Zabuza.

Zabuza had felt the chakra too and could only shiver in fear and wonder what was releasing such evil charka. He saw movement in front of him and swung his sword out at the target, only to have his arms and legs being bitten and held fast. He looked down to see his arms and legs being held down by dogs of various sizes.

Kakashi and Kurenai both noted that the fog was starting to clear up and they soon saw Zabuza being held fast by Kakashi's summons. "Well, it seems the mighty Zabuza isn't so mighty anymore. You thought this mist would bring you victory because you sealed away our strengths? You seem to forget that are four other senses that a shinobi uses and you forgot that. And now to show you the only jutsu that I have created." Kakashi flashed through several hand signs. Almost seemingly, lightening started to form around Kakashi forearm and it crackled with power. Zabuza's eyes widened in fear and he struggled against the dogs. "Today, Zabuza Momochi, you die."

**-With Haku-**

Haku was sent flying away from her last mirror by a charka enhanced fist. She hit the ground roughly and tried to stand up again. She could only prop herself on his elbows to see Naruto approaching her, swords held on his sides. She tried her hardest to move but her muscles screamed in protest and she fell to the ground in defeat, waiting for her imminent death.

Naruto stood over her body and stared at her with cold eyes. "You ended the lives of my important people, Haku… and now it's time for me to end yours." He raised his katana above his head and prepared to bring it down.

Haku could only watch as Naruto was going to bring about her death but it never happened. She looked up and saw Naruto staring at her with eyes of hatred and anger and said, "If you aren't going to kill me, Naruto? What will your friends think of you? Angry that you never avenged their deaths? So hurry, before you lose your chance."

"So be it, then." Naruto prepared himself to swing down when he received the loudest mental shout possible from Kyubbi from within his mind. _**Naruto, calm yourself this instant. Look carefully into Haku's eyes. What do they tell you? Do you see malice or hatred? **_

Naruto looked into Haku's eyes and one again so the emotions of sadness and loneliness. _ No, but she killed Hinata and Sasuke!! _Naruto quickly countered.

_**Are you sure? Have you forgotten what happened to Zabuza? He was hit in the same palce and yet he is still walking and breathing isn't he?**_ Naruto realized this and his charka started to fade away along with his fox features. He looked down at Haku and asked, "Why did you lie? Why do you lie about killing Hinata and Sasuke?" No response came from Haku and Naruto grabbed the front of Haku's outfit and pulled her closer. "Tell me!!"

"I did it because I am a tool. A tool that has now lost its worth to its owner."

Naruto gripped Haku harder. "How could you possibly think that way, Haku? Every person has worth."

Haku looked at Naruto and only shook her head. "I have failed at the one thing for my precious person. Zabuza was the only person to see me as a human being and not a piece of trash on the road. My mother had cared for me when I was young but because of the fear of bloodlines where I lived. Unfortunately, I was controlling water when my father had seen it without my mother knowledge. The same night, my father had killed my mother and proceeded to kill me when I lashed out and killed my father and his friends. I ran away and lived on the streets, disguising myself as a boy. Zabuza soon found me and he trained me up to be a weapon. But I have failed him now; I no longer have a purpose."

Naruto pulled his hand back and slapped Haku straight across the face. Haku cradled her cheek and looked at Naruto with hurt eyes. "No one should ever talk like they are a tool, Haku. You are a human being, not an emotionless robot that listen and follows. You may have failed as Zabuza's tool but that doesn't mean that you should give up on life." Naruto extended a hand to Haku. "Maybe you can start a new life in Konoha." Haku was about to take Naruto's hand when they both felt a large surge of charka and the sounds of a thousand birds chirping was heard.

"I apologize, Naruto. But it seems I won't be able to take your offer." Haku moved away from Naruto at an abnormal speed. Naruto swore and quickly dashed after Haku. He trailed behind her by a few seconds and she was standing in front of Zabuza, with Kakashi bearing down starting to thrust his lightening charged hand forward. _Kyubbi, is there anything you can do to help me? _

_**Do these hand seals and it should help you. **_Kyubbi flashed him a series of hand seals which Naruto sped through with precision. He made the last hand seal and he disappeared in a flash of fire.

Haku was staring at Kakashi with unemotional eyes, awaiting her impending death wondering what life would have been like if she was still going to be alive when Naruto reappeared in front of her and pushed her off to the side. She could only watch in horror as Naruto was impaled through the area right above his heart and he coughed up blood as he struggled to stay conscious.

Kakashi eyes reeled in shock as he had just impaled one of his students and quickly withdrew his hand, leaving a bloody hole in Naruto's chest and blood running freely from the wound. Naruto fell face first to the ground and his breath soon became haggard and he struggled to stay conscious.

-**In Naruto's Mind-**

"_**God Damn it, Naruto. Did you have to throw yourself in front of a jutsu that would have killed you if Kakashi had just hit a few inches lower."**_

"_Well, I had to do something. I couldn't just let Haku throw away her life so easily," countered Naruto._

"_**That doesn't mean that you should throw yourself in front of an incoming attack. You should be happy I am healing the gaping hole in your chest or else you would be dead. This is going to take only a couple of hours to close up but probably about a weak to heal completely which will give me time to drill some common sense into your head. **_

Naruto chose at that moment to open his eyes again and try to gain his bearings for what was happening. He saw that Zabuza had been released from his hold by the dogs and a large mob of what looked like hired men were facing off against the ninja. He tried to stand up and wobbled around before steadying himself.

"Pathetic. You call yourself the Demon of the Bloody Mist, and yet you were defeated in such a manner, Zabuza. But to tell you the truth, I was never going to pay you anyways. Missing ninja are so easy to deal with as they have no allegiance and can be easily killed off when the job is done. Then, I can hand in the body for a nice sum of money." Said Gato, from behind his mob of hired hands. "It seems that this village hasn't given up. Well, I guess it time for to forcefully take this own. Men, kill all the men in this village and take as the women as prisoners so we can sell them off as salves and for my own pleasures." He looked at Kurenai, Sakura and the recently conscious Hinata. "Especially the kunochi. I have special plans for them," he said in a perverse tone.

Naruto's eyes had flared up at this speech Gato had given and he picked up his katana with his right hand from the ground and slowly walked forward, chakra starting to roll off in waves which each step he took. Everyone present looked at the source of chakra and saw Naruto walking forward toward the mob with a calm face but a deep anger in his eyes. "Today was the wrong day to come out of your rat hole, Gato. Even though your hands are clean of blood of your works, you soul is bloody and therefore you will be killed today." Naruto slipped into a stance with the sheath in his left hand and sword in his right.

"What am I paying for you men? Kill that boy and earn your pay," Gato bellowed out. All the men charged toward Naruto and one broke out ahead of the group and raised his sword above his head, hoping to cleave Naruto in two. Sadly, his chance never came and Naruto stuck him with godlike-speed and the man fell to the ground in a bloody heap. The charging men continued their charge hoping to overwhelm Naruto. Naruto moved forward with inhuman speed and struck killing three men with each strike and soon more than half of the hired army was dead lying in pieces. The rest of the men had scattered not wanting to face death by such an unrelenting enemy. Gato was at the end of the unfinished bridge, nearly soiling himself as he watched Naruto slowly walk forward.

"I'll do anything. I'll give you money, women, anything!! Just don't kill me," Gato said as he fell to his knees begging for his life.

Naruto looked at him with cold eyes. "Why should I show you mercy when you weren't going to show mercy to this town? How about all the people you removed in order to gain all of your wealth? Once again I state, your hands are not bloody but your soul is." Naruto raised his katana to prepare for Gato's death. He suddenly put his katana down and indicated for Kakashi to come over. Kakashi came over and Naruto whispered something in his ear. Kakashi nodded his head several times and gave thumb ups to Naruto.

"It seems that you lucked out today, Gato. I won't kill you-" Gato bowed several times before Naruto thanking him for sparing hi and was making promises that he would change while in his mind he was already making plans to get revenge.

"You ever said we were going to let you go? We are turning you over to the villagers and I'm sure that they can think up to keep you locked as long as possible. Also, your considerable wealth could be used to help this town, something you won't be using for a long time." As if on cue, a large majority of the villagers rallied by Inari had come to the entrance of the bridge only to be met with a gruesome sight of body pieces, blood, and Naruto leading a defeated looking Gato into their hands.

"I turn Gato over into your hands to await punishment." At that moment, Naruto's body collapsed on itself and he crumpled to the ground completely exhausted, body and mind. The last thing he saw was were several people running at him

-**A Week Later-**

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, groaning as his body was very stiff and it was difficult to move around. He had gone through intense training under Kyubbi's watch and his mind was still very tired from the never ending training. He felt a weight on his chest and saw a sleeping Hinata. He put his hand on her shoulder and shook her awake. She awoke very slowly and saw a smiling Naruto or what she could make out from behind his mask. She quickly drew him into a hug but quickly let go from embarrassment. Naruto stood up again but nearly fell down but was supported by Hinata.

They walked down the stairs and were greeted with the sight with the Konoha ninja and suprisingly Haku and Zabuza.

"I take it that you have decided to take my offer, Haku?" Naruto asked.

Haku gave a curt nod and said, "I told this plan to Zabuza and he also thought it was a good idea. So, we would like to become Konoha shinobi if you would allow it."

**-Another week later-**

The Konoha ninja with Haku and Zabuza were now standing on the newly completed bridge and were all packed to return back to Konoha. The entire village had come to see them off and was giving their goodbyes until the next time they would see again. Inari was saying his goodbye to Naruto when he started to tear up.

"Well, look who is crying again." Naruto said.

"I'm not crying. I got something in my eye." Inari said back while rubbing the tears from his eyes.

Naruto kneeled down and put his hand on Inari's head. "There nothing to be ashamed about when you are crying tears of happiness. Remember to become strong." Naruto stood back up again and ran to catch up with the group that was leaving.

"So, what do you propose we name the bridge?" said a villager.

Tazuna looked at Naruto's retreating back and said, "How about the Great Naruto Bridge?"

The villagers all murmured their consent and soon a cheer was heard. "To The GREAT NARUTO BRIDGE!!"

So after so long, I have updated again. I feel really bad about not updating but school has reared its ugly head and I find my studies more important. I have so many ideas crammed in my head but sadly none apply to the current arc. Anyways, Please review and please don't leave simple or three-worded reviews. I'm open to any suggestions that people offer. Thxs for reading my fic and Peace out, everyone.


	8. Relaxation in Konoha

Ch

First of all, before I write, I want to thank Narutomaniac for pointing a lot of stuff that could be fixed in my story and but since I have already rewrote this story once, I not going to do it again and will add the needed changes as the story progress, at my discretion. This chapter is going to be a break between the last arc and the upcoming Chunin exam arc so don't expect too much action. It will allow me to get rid of some of the ideas I have been thinking of. Now onto the story!

Ch.8

Relaxation in Konoha

"Normal Speech"

'**Kyubbi Speaking'**

'Thoughts/ Naruto talking back to Kyubbi'

The entire Konoha crew was moving at a steady pace back to their home with two more people in tow hoping to become part of Konoha ninja force. They went through the gates with relative ease and were soon making their way over to the Hokage Tower. The Hokage was battling his eternal enemy, paperwork and was going to take a break by reading his favorite novel when the door opened. He hurriedly stuffed his book back into his drawer and saw Team 7 & 8 along with two unfamiliar faces.

The Hokage turned to Kakashi and Kurenai and said, "It seems that your mission was a success even though it had changed from a C-rank to an A-rank. And I see two new faces with us today. What are your names?"

Zabuza and Haku stepped forward and introduced themselves. "I see. Zabuza, you are in the Hidden Mist Bingo Book for attempted assassination of the Mizukage. I don't know if I could entirely trust you to become a Konoha shinobi. The same goes for you, Haku."

"I assure you Hokage-sama, that we mean no ill will toward Konoha. It was Naruto who had asked us to join and we took his offer hoping we would be granted citizenship and perhaps ninja status. But if we are to be turned away, we will leave peacefully and not be a bother." Haku said. Sarutobi looked at them closely in the eye and saw no deceit.

"Well, it seems that Naruto was correct in making you two allies. I'll set up living arrangements for you." He motioned to Kakashi and Kurenai to come closer. Then stepped forward up to the Hokage and he whispered something in their ears. Both nodded their consent and motioned for their respective teams to follow them. Naruto gave a small wave good bye to Hinata and she blushed, returning the wave with a wave back.

Kakashi told them a bit later that the Hokage had given them the next day off to rest from the mission and had given the team passes to go to a local hot spring that the Hokage himself had recommended. He suggested for them to bring a swimsuit to wear inside the hot spring unless they wanted to see each other nearly naked. Sasuke and Sakura blushed at that statement while Naruto merely quirked an eyebrow at Kakashi's statement.

-**The Next Day-**

Sasuke and Sakura had both arrived on the bridge with slight blushes on their faces at what would be happening today. Naruto arrived with an impassive face and greeted his two teammates. Kakashi appeared right behind Naruto, surprisingly on time and motioned them to follow him. They followed him silently until they reached the hot spring which had Team 8 waiting in front. Naruto caught eye contact with Hinata and she instantly started to blush.

"Well, since we are all here. Why don't we go in?" said Kakashi giving one of his creepy one eye smiles at the same time. The group walked in and proceeded to their respective areas to get changed.

-**In the Girl's changing room-**

Kurenai, Hinata and Sakura walked in and were surprised to see Haku, waiting for them.

"Haku, what are you doing here?" Hinata inquired.

"Well, after the Hokage had given me and Zabuza living arrangements, he gave us passes to the hot spring too. He said something about let us get acquainted to the village before assigning us to jobs in the village." Haku replied with a serene smile.

"Well, it nice for you to be with us. Now let's get changed." Kurenai said.

**-In the Boy's changing room-**

Everyone in the room was staring intently at Kakashi and Naruto, who were unaware of their looks, to see what was under their masks. Shino, Kiba and Sasuke had all formulated an image in their mind but had yet to confirm what was under the masks. However they were foiled when neither Naruto nor Kakashi made any movement to remove their masks. Naruto removed his shirt to reveal several large scars that ran across his chest and back, raising several eyebrows of the occupants in the room.

"How did you get all of those scars?" asked Kakashi.

"Training." Naruto replied.

"What kind of training are you doing that gives you such scars?"

"Shadow clones armed with swords. I believe you can figure out from there, Kakashi." He then walked to the entrance of the hot spring and open the door to show a slightly inebriated Zabuza with a small dish of sake in his hand.

"Zabuza, what are you doing here and why are you drinking so early in the morning?" asked Naruto while the guys settled into the water, letting their muscles loosen up.

"Well, after getting our living arrangements, the Hokage had decided to give us a day to relaxing before enstating us as shinobi of Konoha. And I got to admit, that was a pretty good idea." Hr took another sip from his dish before saying, "And it seems that Haku has some friends coming with her and will appear in about 5 seconds." True to his word, Haku, Sakura, Hinata and Kurenai came in all in various swimsuits. Haku was wearing pale blue; Sakura, a vibrant pink: Kurenai, a dark red, and Hinata, a pale lavender. The girls all walked to the water and settled down, adjusting to the heat

All the girls walked past the stunned men and tested the water before walking and sighing in contentment as the hot waters started to relax their bodies. Kakashi and Zabuza were discussing something about Icha Icha series and were constantly making giggling noises while drinking sake at the same time, faces starting to become a bit red. Kurenai was eyeing the men at a safe distance, making sure that they would not something they would regret later. As for the genins and Haku, they were all eyeing their certain love interest or crush. Kiba was glancing at Hinata, who was looking at Naruto with a blush while Naruto was blissfully ignorant of his surrounding due to the hot spring having a soothing effect for his muscles and mind. Shino, Haku, Sakura and Sasuke quietly observed the odd love triangle and wished for something to happen, secretly rooting for Naruto to go to Hinata.

Their chance came when Naruto broke out of his peaceful state of mind and noticed Hinata was constantly looking at him. He waded over to Hinata, who came much redder though he didn't know if it was the doing or the hot spring. Kiba had saw Naruto approach Hinata and tried to get to Hinata but was tripped up from something in the water and he fell in an ungraceful splash.

"Hinata, is something wrong?"

Hinata tried to make contact with Naruto's eyes but her eyes stayed fixated on his scars. "No, but I just wanted to know how you got so many scars?" She asked in a soft voice.

"These scars are from my training and are a constant reminder of why I became a shinobi. But, I guess it makes my body a lot less appealing to other people."

"I don't think so, Naruto-kun. Those scars are important to you as they are a symbol to what you hold dear. You shouldn't be ashamed of them but they sometimes do they hurt even though they have healed?"

"I suppose they do but it's nothing I can't handle. And besides, this hot spring is helping to relieve some of the pain." Naruto replied. He rolled around his arms around and tried to get the soreness in his shoulders. Hinata looked at him curiously before asking in a soft voice, "If you want Naruto-kun, I can give a massage."

"And just where did you learn to give massages, Hianta-chan?" Naruto said in a sly voice.

Hinata blushed and said, "It was a lesson that kunoichi students learned that was separate from the boys." She got behind Naruto and started to knead her hands around Naruto's shoulders and Naruto relaxed instantly under Hinata's soft hands. It only took under 10 minutes for Hinata's masterful hands to remove the soreness from Naruto's shoulders. Naruto stood up and turned around to look at Hianta.

"It seems that your massage worked very well. But now, I think its time for me to return the favor, Hinata." Hinata blushed at this but turned around to allow Naruto massage her as well. Naruto's hand worked up and down Hinata's back and she felt her back relax in places that she thought didn't exist. Naruto's hands soon finished their job and Hinata had never felt more relaxed in her life.

The ninja continued to relax in various ways until Naruto stood up and walked back toward the exit. Kakashi by now was in a buzzed state and slurred his words when he spoke. "Narutoooo, where are youuu going?"

"Excuse me, Kakashi-sensei, but I have some business to take care of. I will be leaving now." Naruto walked out of the hot spring and Kakashi went back to his discussion with Zabuza about Keiko in chapter fine of Icha Icha Paradise.

-**Outside the hot spring-**

Naruto walked out of the building when he spied a man peeping through a hole in the wall. He was giggling perversely and was writing down something on a note pad. Naruto snuck up to the man and put two kunai to the man's throat. "I'm going to give you a few seconds before I yell pervert to have all the women inside to come out here and beat you into submission unless you tell me who you are and what you are doing?"

The old man quickly knocked him away and announced himself. "I am the Great Hermit, Jiraiya. One of the Great Sannin of Konoha and publisher of the Icha Icha series!!" He said all of this while dancing around and ended on a stupid looking pose. Naruto didn't know whether to show him respect for being one of the sannin of Konoha or whether to beat him into submission for peeping in the hot spring and being the publisher of Icha Icha. He decided on the latter but decided to let someone else do his job. He quickly pulled out a paper seal out of one of his pockets that Kyubbi had taught him to make and quickly moved forward and slapped it onto Jiraiya's forehead and activated it. "Good luck trying to escape from the women." Naruto whispered. "PERVERT NEAR THE BATHHOUSE!!" And Naruto disappeared in a flash of leaves.

Jiraiya smirked to himself as he heard the women making a commotion in the hot spring. '_Arrogant little kid thought he could hold me with this weak seal.' _Jiraiya tried to move around but found his muscles had been locked in place and was now surrounded by a mob of angry women and all he could sweatdrop before he got a beating that involved various bath objects along with juuken strikes, senbon needles and a genjutsu that put him in a room full of gay men.

-**With Naruto-**

Naruto was currently waiting to receive his ramen when Hinata had walked in. He turned over to see Hinata settling in and reaching for a menu. "Hinata-chan, what are you doing here?" Hinata looked up from her menu and was about to answer when her stomach gave a loud rumble and she blushed in embarrassment. Naruto gave a chuckle before turning to his own ramen that had arrived. He gave thanks to Ayame and broke apart a pair of chopsticks and proceeded to take down his mask. Hinata was too busy looking down the menu to notice Naruto's maskless face and only decided to look up again to order when Naruto order another bowl. His face was perfect in her eyes and she could only stare and drool on how Naruto's face looked. She was so focused on Naruto's face that she hadn't noticed her ramen had arrived and Naruto was soon waving his hand in her face to get her attention.

"Yoohoo, Hinata? You there?" He was waving his hand in front of Hinata's face but was getting no response. He poked her in the cheek with his finger and still got no response. He sighed and pulled up close to Hinata and licked her on the cheek which got an "Awwww" from a watching Ayame. Hinata instantly snapped back and her hand accidentally landed on the bowl and flipped the entire content of the bowl to land on Hinata and Naruto. Most of the noodles had landed on Naruto's head and it gave him an odd looking appearance. Hinata took one glance at him through her ramen soaked hair and giggled at Naruto.

"Well, it looks like someone is back from her fantasy land, though it took a good bowl of ramen." Naruto said. He picked the noodles from off his head and placed them back in a trash bin nearby. "Well, Hinata, I would ask you if you wanted to train right now but it seems we aren't in the right condition to do that, so I will meet you in one hour at your house to spar. Is that okay?" Hinata nodded and left the shop in a hurry to get back to the Hyugga manor. Naruto pulled his mask back up and left the shop, leaving money to pay for his meal and for Hianta's also.

-**About 30 minutes later-**

Naruto had finished cleaning himself early and found himself outside the Hyugga gates. The guards let him in and he stood patiently outside in the courtyard, waiting for Hinata to appear. He heard a door open and he turned to face the newcomer and was greeted by a boy that looked about a year older and cold eyes that seem to make everything lower then him.

"Who are you and what is the meaning of your presence on the Hyugga grounds?" the boy demanded.

"My name in Naruto. I am here waiting for Hinata to go do some training." Naruto replied.

The boy sneered and said, "That main house weakling? She could have all the training in the world and she still wouldn't be strong."

Naruto's eyes narrowed and his fists tightened by his side. "Why is that?"

"Because it was fated to be. She was born weak and therefore she will stay weak her entire life." At that moment, Hinata and Hiashi appeared in the courtyard and Neji gave a short bow to each before disappearing into the manor. Naruto glared at his retreating back and was only brought out by Hinata's voice. "Is something wrong, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto's face instantly changed and was smiling again. "Nothing is wrong, Hinata-chan."

Hiashi had decided to speak up at this moment. "Naruto, if you would, my I please speak with you before you leave with Hinata?"

Naruto walked over to Hiashi with Hinata following him. "I apologize, Hinata. But I would like to speak to Naruto alone." Hinata stopped and could only watch as Naruto was steered away by Hiashi.

Naruto followed Hiashi silently around the grounds of the Hyugga manor and was about to ask what did Hiashi want when Hiashi spoke up. "Forgive me if I am being blunt, Naruto, but what are your intentions with my daughter?" Naruto stayed silent so Hiashi continued. "I am sure that you know my daughter's reactions around you and I would like to know how will react."

"I understand about your daughter's feelings, Hiashi-sama. But, I feel that we are at an age that emotions and feelings will often get the better of us and make us act foolish. I admit that I have feelings for Hinata also, but I will not act upon them now. I know Hianta-chan will like to something more than friends but now is not the time to do so. Maybe sometime in the future, I will ask for your permission to court her but as for the current moment I will just like to protect her from anyone that wished to so her harm."

Hiashi had observed Naruto through his small speech and detected no lie. "I see your intentions, Naruto. You have my blessing if you wish to court Hinata in the future. But do realize that Hinata is next in line to succeed the Hyugga clan but I want her to be also happy. So, I will be counting on you to help Hinata, Naruto." He shooed him away now. "Go back to Hinata but don't tell her anything about this talk we had." Hiashi walked back to the house and left Naruto to walk back to Hinata.

-During Training-

Naruto and Hinata were going through their dance of sword and palms, honing their skills when they were interrupted by a masked Anbu waiting patiently to be noticed. Naruto looked at the Anbu and Hinata followed his gaze to the Anbu. "Uzumaki, you are needed at the Hokage's office at his request. He said something about a man wanting to meet with you." Naruto's eyes lit up at this but otherwise made no other reaction. "Hinata would like to accompany me and you may find out who has been see who has helped me become what I am today." Hinata gave a quick nod of her head and they both walked off to the Hokage's tower.

On there to the Hokage's tower, a wooden box with eyeholes started to follow Naruto and Hinata around and Naruto could only tolerate for a few seconds before he turned around and tapped the box. It instantly exploded in a puff of smoke and coughs were heard from inside the smoke cloud.

"Udon, use less gunpowder for the smoke cloud, okay? And Moegi, make the rock less square."

"Got it, Konohamaru." Said a nasally voice and a high-pitched voice. A gust of wind blew the smoke away and it revealed Konohamaru, a girl whose hair was tied together behind her and a boy that has a runny nose and they all had a pair of goggles on their head. "We have finally found you, Naruto. The Konohamaru Corps !!"

Naruto just sweat dropped at the sight but asked, "What do you need, Konohamaru?"

Konohamaru just pouted and said, "You said you would play ninja with me that one day but you never have the time to do so."

"Uh, why are you going to play Ninja if you are going to become Ninja and Naruto already being one?" whispered Hinata into Naruto's ear.

"They are still kids, Hinata. Let them have their fun and we just play along. They will get over it soon enough." Naruto whispered back under his breath.

"What are you talking about Naruto to that girl? Is she your girlfriend?" he asked suggestively while waving his pinkie finger. Hinata blushed while Naruto looked with an almost unemotional face with a blush just barely appearing over his mask.

"Hinata is just a friend that I consider very important to me, but that doesn't make her my girlfriend, Konohamaru. I suggest you don't look any farther into it or else you will be in several positions that are very painful," said Naruto with a death glare that froze Konohamaru in his tracks.

Naruto instantly changed back to normal. "So are you guys still up to playing ninja?" Udon and Moegi cheered while Konohamaru just meekly nodded his head, still feeling the after effect of Naruto's glare.

**-After several minutes of chasing around-**

Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi rounded a corner with Naruto and Hinata following close behind when Konohamaru ran into something. He looked up and saw a boy wearing a black bodysuit with makeup on his face and a large wrapped package on his back and a girl with ponytails similar to Moegi and carrying a large weapon on her back. The boy spoke up, "Hey you little punk. Watch where you are going." He picked up Konohamaru by the scruff of his collar.

"Kankuro, put the boy down. There is no reason to start trouble here." Said the girl in a bored voice.

"Don't worry, Temari. I'm not going to do anything to harmful to the kid." Naruto rounded the corner at that moment. "What are you doing to Konohamaru?"

"Why does to matter to you, brat? He ran without even looking at where he was going and now he has to take some form of punishment for it." He pulled back his hand and formed it into a fist, ready to punch Konohamaru. Konohamaru closed his eyes waiting to get hit but it never came. Instead, he saw Naruto behind Kankuro with a kunai at his throat. "Now, once again, I ask that you let go of Konohamaru." Kankuro froze as he felt cold metal on his neck and dropped Konohamaru to the ground, where he rushed back to where Udon, Moegi and Hinata were standing. Naruto moved back to them in a casual fashion while Kankuro started to unravel the package on his back. "You're going to pay for that you little brat!"

Naruto turned around and calmly responded, "Well, this little brat is welcome to any challenge that you propose."

Kankuro smirked. "You're going to regret saying those words." Just then, a large amount of killing intent washed over the area and everyone turned to face where it came from. A boy with flaming red hair, with darks rings around his eyes and a tattoo for "love" in kanji imprinted on his forehead. "Kankuro, what are you doing?"

"Gaara, I wasn't doing anything. These kids-"

"Be quiet or I will kill you." Kankuro instantly clammed up. Naruto looked at the scene with an odd look on his face and he felt a powerful presence coming from within Gaara. Kyubbi who was currently looking through Naruto's eyes to see what was happening noticed the signs of another demon in her midst. '**Naruto, that boy in front with the red hair, I believe holds one of the tailed demons like you.'**

'_Are you sure, Kyubbi? I mean he seems a bit strong for his age but to have a demon sealed within himself'_

' **I am positive now that I am looking at the boy. He seems a bit insane and lacking sleep from something and no normal person is like that, especially at a young age. But there was only one demon that was insane like that. It was the one-tailed raccoon demon, Shukkaku, master of the wind element and sand, though he was a bit off his rocker during the time I knew him.'**

'_So you do you propose we talk to him, seeing as any thing could send him off into an insane frenzy?'_

'**Leave him alone for now. Hopefully nothing here will set him off. We can approach him later when he isn't surrounded by others he can harm.'**

Naruto looked at Garra and his teammates. "Why are you here in our village?"

"We are here to participate in the Chunnin Exams that is happening in your village." Temari answered. Naruto nodded at them and made Konohamaru and friends walk away to avoid any more conflict. "Just so you know, the boy you were about to attack was the grandson of our Hokage, and by attempting to attack him could put you guys in a whole lot of trouble." Naruto motioned to Hinata to follow and was about to leave the scene when Garra spoke up. "What is your name?"

Naruto looked back and said, "My name is Naruto Himura Uzumaki. I do hope to see you again, Garra, my fellow Jinchuuriki." Hinata looked confused at the words Naruto spoke but Kankuro and Temari looked in shock while Gaara silently evaluated who Naruto was.

-**At the Hokage's Tower-**

Naruto and Hinata both made their way in and were both told by the secretary to go up to Hokage's office. They knocked on the door and the Hokage told them to come in. The Hokage was sitting at his desk while an unfamiliar man to Hinata was looking out the windows of the office. Naruto instantly recognized the man but stuttered out, "Kenshin-san?"

The recognized man turned around. He looked the same as he left except for a curious cross-shaped scar on his face. "Well, it has been a long time, hasn't it Naruto?"

And that is where I will stop. Review my story. Criticisms are always helpful in improving my story, but please don't leave shorts message of "update soon" or "Awesome" as it doesn't really help in my writing. As for updating, finals are upon me and I will be studying my butt off to pass my classes so don't expect anything for about two weeks. This chapter was merely a filler to get some ideas out my head. Chunnin exams are starting and why has Kenshin come back to Konoha? Read and find out next time. Until then, Peace out.


	9. Family and A Kiss?

I would like to thank all the people who reviewed, favorited, etc

I would like to thank all the people who reviewed, favorited, etc. my story since my last chapter. It makes me so happy to see my see people are enjoying my fanfiction. Thank you to the people who pointed out my mistake of the Zabuza attempted assassination on the Hokage, when it should be Mizukage. Oh yea, I have decided to not make it a threesome with FemHakuxNarutoxHinata. Too troublesome to write and plan. Maybe in a future fanfic I will do it. This may be the chapter Hinata and Naruto may actually get into an actual relationship, but will one secret about Naruto ruin that? Anyways, on with the story

"Hey, who are..." Normal talking

**Kyubbi/Kasumi speech or conversation**

**Inner thoughts**

_Normal thoughts_

-Last Time-

-**At the Hokage's Tower-**

Naruto and Hinata both made their way in and were both told by the secretary to go up to Hokage's office. They knocked on the door and the Hokage told them to come in. The Hokage was sitting at his desk while an unfamiliar man to Hinata was looking out the windows of the office. Naruto instantly recognized the man but stuttered out, "Kenshin-san?"

The recognized man turned around. He looked the same as he left except for a curious cross-shaped scar on his face. "Well, it has been a long time, hasn't it Naruto?"

Ch. 9

Family and Chunnin Exams

Kenshin walked over to Naruto and gave him a quick look before ruffling his hair. "Well, it seems that you have grown up quite a lot, Naruto." Naruto responded, "And you still look the same when you left 3 years ago. What brings you back to Konoha?"

"Well, I have decided to fully train you in the style of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū. And, also to tell you of your heritage." Naruto's eyes widened at what Kenshin had said and started to tremble. He knew how powerful the Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu, having seen it several times when they had been attacked by bandits and missing ninja while traveling the lands. All his opponents had been finished in one move and Naruto had always pestered Kenshin to teach it to him while he was receiving sword training. He distinctly remember one day when his question got a different answer.

-**Flashback-**

"Kenshin, please teach me the style of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu." Naruto whined while they were going through basic strikes with swords.

Kenshin rubbed his eyes and quickly pulled out his sword. "Defend yourself, Naruto" Naruto could barely react before his sword was knocked out of his hand and he fell to the ground, with Kenshin's blade at his throat. "Now, I am going to tell you once on why I will not teach you the Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu." He pulled his blade back and Naruto sat up, clearly shaken at what had just happened. "Naruto, what is a sword?"

Naruto was confused at the question. "Isn't a sword a weapon?"

"Alright, then. What does a weapon do, then?"

Naruto said apprehensively. "A weapon is used to kill."

"That's right, Naruto. A sword is a weapon. Swordmanship is a method of killing. When directed at someone, one person will come up the winner and the other dead. I do not like to kill, but I do it to protect the people that are close to me. The Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu is a something I feel you do not need in your young life. I will teach you swordsmanship but I will not teach you Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu unless the need arises. Understand?"

"Hai, Kenshin." Naruto had absorbed the lecture and kept it in his mind.

"Now, let's continue our training, shall we?"

-**End Flashback-**

"Why have you decided to teach it to me now, Kenshin?"

"I believe it is time for a new student and you are the only person I choose to teach it to. And with that aside, I will now inform you of your heritage. But seeing it is an S Class secret of the village, I think Hinata should leave the room."

Naruto shook his head. "Hinata-chan is my closest friend. I think what is said will not be spread around."

"Alright, then." Kenshin pulled out a picture from off the desk off of the Hokage's desk and it had the picture of the Fourth Hokage. "Who is this person?"

Hinata spoke up. "That is the Fourth Hokage of Konoha."

"Correct. Now, what are his accomplishments?"

Naruto spoke this time. "He helped in numerous battles in the Second Shinobi War with his Hirashin (Flying Thunder God Technique), and he sealed the nine-tailed fox."

"Wait a second, Naruto-kun. What do you mean by sealed? Everyone knows that he killed the nine-tailed fox."

Naruto sighed and took a deep breath. "What they taught at the Academy was wrong. The nine-tailed fox has too much charka to be killed. So the only way to defeat it was by sealing it."

"That means the fox was sealed away into some sort of object, right?"

Naruto tried to say that the nine-tailed fox was sealed in him but nothing came out. The Hokage saw his dilemma and cut in. "Hinata, the nine-tailed fox charka was too great to be sealed into an object for it would eventually break from it confinement and wreak havoc on the world again. It would have to be sealed into a human being to ensure its confinement but not just any human being, it had to be a newly born baby."

"Well. Why not an adult shinobi? They would be able to use the charka from the nine-tailed fox, wouldn't they?"

"The charka coils of an adult are already developed to a point if the immense charka of the nine-tailed fox was exposed to them, they would probably die due to the sheer amount of charka that would be released into their coils."

Naruto was trying to speak during this explanation and was having an internal battle with himself and Kyubbi.

"**I am telling you Naruto. She won't push you away even if she knew that you had me sealed in you," Kyubbi insisted for the hundredth time.**

"**I know, Kyubbi. But I don't want to tell her."**

**Kyubbi sighed. "Fine, Naruto, be that way. If you don't tell her, someone else may tell her and give her a story that is entirely different from you would tell and that could push her away." She drifted away and Naruto came back from his small trip to hear the Hokage say something about a newborn being sealed with the nine-tailed fox.**

"- and that is what happened. The Fourth sealed the nine-tailed fox into a baby and that baby lives today."

Hinata spoke out. "But Hokage-sama, something as dangerous as that should be watched at all moments. We don't know if the seal is weakening or possibly even breaking right now. The nine-tailed fox could have even taken over the mind of this person." Hinata continued on with several more reason while Naruto felt his spirit slowly falling down with each reason Hinata provided. Hinata noticed Naruto's falling demeanor and asked, "Is something wrong, Naruto-kun?"

Kenshin and the Hokage watched carefully to see how things would develop and wonder if Naruto would say he was the baby and how Hinata would react.

Naruto looked up at Hinata and said, "I am the baby that was sealed."

Hinata's eyes widened in shock and fear and backed away from Naruto. Naruto could only watch with sadness at Hinata's reaction but he continued. "The Fourth sealed the nine-tailed fox into me. I don't his reasons or his motives other than the fact that I was chosen. I did not choose to do this but I will accept it as I can do nothing about it now. You can tell that the nine-tailed fox has not done any of the things you have stated before but nothing changes what it did 16 years ago. I know that villagers talk behind my back and shinobi and villagers alike would like to see me dead. But, Hinata, what will you do?"

Hinata could only look at Naruto before rushing out of the office without looking back. Naruto looked at her sadly and felt something happen within himself before turning back to Kenshin and the Hokage.

"Naruto, she just needs time to sort her thoughts out. Give her some time," said Kenshin. Naruto just nodded his head turned back toward Kenshin. "So, do you know who my mother and father were?"

"Uzumaki Kushina. That was your mother's name. I believe she came from the Whirlpool Country. Unfortunately, she died during childbirth due to a lot of stress." The Hokage pulled out a picture from one of his pockets in his robe. "Here a picture of her."

Naruto took the picture sluggishly and in it was a woman with red hair. "May I keep this?" The Hokage nodded his consent and Naruto stowed it in one of his pockets. "Well, who was my father?"

"I think all will make sense if I give you this." Kenshin handed Naruto a framed picture of the Fourth Hokage. Naruto stared at the picture for several seconds before his eyes widened. "You mean my father, Namikaze Minato, the Fourth Hokage is my father?"

Kenshin and the Hokage both nodded their heads. Naruto placed the picture on the Hokage's desk and turned to leave the room.

"Naruto, where are you going?" asked the Hokage. Naruto just looked back with saddened eyes and continued walking, leaving the office with a quiet click of the door. The Hokage looked at Kenshin. "Will Naruto be okay?"

Kenshin looked out the window. "The boy is strong and rarely shows his emotions. But, this may prove too much for him to handle at once. I think he will let down his mask down and he is going to be an emotional wreck. I don't know whether this will change him but I am going to watch him so he doesn't do anything drastic." Kenshin opened the window and jumped out, disappearing in the air.

The Hokage took out his pipe and lit it and puffed several clouds of smoke. _I can only wonder how Naruto will come out of this._

**-Nighttime on the Hokage Monument-**

Naruto was absentmindly playing his flute, staring out at the lights and sounds of the village. Kenshin appeared behind and sat down. "It seems you have improved on your skill with the flute, Naruto."

Naruto stopped playing. "What do you want, Kenshin? I don't fell like talking right now?"

"And moping around, trying to avoid people will be any better? Tell me, Naruto, what is going on in your mind right now?"

Naruto stood and spread his arms. "My father, Namikaze Minato, the Fourth Hokage …why? Why me of all people to seal Kyubbi in me? I understand that how could he sacrifice someone else child if he couldn't even sacrifice his own son, but is this how it wanted to be? To be hated for something out of my control? To be hunted down by people that curse your very existence and want me dead because of it? I am surprised myself that I haven't cracked and tried to kill everyone who even looked at me funny but that's not what hurts the most. The look of fear on Hinata's face back in the office hurt more than the anger-filled eyes and hatred-filled voices."

Kenshin put an arm on Naruto's shoulder. "If you were not the one who wasn't sealed with Kyubbi, who would it be then? Sasuke? Sakura? Hinata? I understand that you have to carry a great burden but if given the choice, would you make someone else take on the burden of holding Kyubbi?" Naruto shook his head in response. "Then you understand what it means to be a Jinchuuriki."

"What are you talking about, Kenshin?" Naruto queried.

"Power of Human Sacrifice. It is your own power that helps to keep the Kyubbi in her jail. I understand that Kyubbi has no ill will against humankind but everyone else in the world doesn't know that. Your father understood what he was sacrificing for himself and you, but he hoped that people would be able to see pass the fact you were sealed with Kyubbi but probably deep down inside he knew they would shun and harm you. But it's up to you to choose what you want to do with your powers, to protect the people who shun and fear you or to bring about their ruin and cause death."

Naruto took a deep breath. "I want to protect all those precious to me, but if it means protecting the people that hate me, so be it then even if they don't want my protection."

Kenshin stood up and dusted himself off. "Come on, let's go to your apartment and get some sleep."

**-Meanwhile at the Hyuuga Manor-**

Hinata was lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling, tears stains streaked across her face. She had said many things about keeping the container of the nine-tailed fox under watch at all times and making sure that person wasn't allowed to do anything dangerous without even realizing that she was talking about Naruto the entire time. She heard a knock on the door and she turned away. "Go away. I don't want to talk right now."

The door opened and Hiashi walked in. "Well, daughter. Maybe I want to talk with you." He sat down on her bed. "What's wrong, Hinata?"

"I don't want to talk about, father." Hinata barely whispered.

"Does this involve something with Naruto?" Hiashi questioned. Hinata visibly stiffened and Hiashi knew he hit the nail right on the head. "What happened with Naruto?"

Hinata gave a sigh and started in a weak voice. "Today, I learned that Naruto has the nine-tailed fox sealed within him."

Hiashi's eyes widened and asked with a harsh tone. "Who told you this sort of information?"

Hinata flinched under his voice and squeaked. "Naruto told me."

_Damn. I did it again. _"Naruto told you. Hmm….." Hiashi thought for a bit before asking another question. "How did you react?"

Tears started to form on the edge of her eyes. "Before Naruto told, I was saying thing to keep the person who was sealed with the nine-tailed fox under control and under watched or even imprisoned so they wouldn't be able to do anything. I did this without even realizing it was Naruto who I was talking about. Naruto probably hates me now."

Hiashi put a comforting hand on Hinata. "Hinata, you are strong and beautiful just like your mother was. Don't let this crush your spirit. Go to Naruto and apologize to him. He is understanding and will forgive you. But for now, you need to rest." Hiashi poked a pressure point on Hinata's neck and he slowly drifted off to sleep. Haishi walked out of the room and gave a one last look at Hinata with a small smile on his face.

-**The Next Morning-**

Naruto woke and looked at the time. "CRAP!! I'M LATE!!" He leapt out of his bed and quickly threw on his clothes along with his mask. He went into the kitchen and saw Kenshin was enjoying a nice pot of tea. "Thanks for waking me up, Kenshin."

Kenshin smiled serenely back "You're welcome."

"Gah, Kenshin!!" Naruto dashed out the floor to try to be there before Kakashi got to the bridge for their team meeting. Naruto rushed to the bridge and when he got there, he sighed in relief that he had gotten to the bridge before Kakashi had gotten there.

"Wow, Naruto, you are really late." Sakura stated. They waited for about another thirty minuets before Kakashi appeared in front of them. "Since you all are here, today we don't have a mission. Instead, I am going to give you these." He handed a slip to each of them. "I have recommended you guys to participate in the upcoming Chunnin exam that is happening in out village this year. Sign them and meet at the Academy at 9:00 clock tomorrow at Room 301 if you would like to participate. See you all later, then." Kakashi shushined away and left the three genin to their own thoughts and they all parted in their own directions.

Naruto walked over to a training ground and saw that Hinata was training by herself. She was slowly moving her hands in her own style. Her eyes were closed and Naruto was entranced by the way she was moving before he realized he didn't really want to talk with Hinata at the moment. He proceeded to go away but stepped on a branch and the cracking of the branch alerted Hinata, who eyes snapped and instantly activated her Byakugan. "Who's there?"

Naruto walked out of the trees and stepped out. "Hey, Hinata."

Hinata looked away and a full minute of an awkward silence before Hinata spoke up. "I'm sorry, Naruto."

Naruto looked up and quickly responded. "It's not your fault, Hinata. You didn't know and you reacted to your emotions." A look of sadness appeared on Naruto's face. "My only question now is, what do you see me as?"

Hinata went up to him and stood in front of him. "Where is the seal?" Naruto lifted his shirt and pumped a little charka to reveal the seal on his stomach. Hinata touched the seal with her hands and Naruto moved slightly from feeling Hinata's soft hands on his own skin. "Does it hurt, Naruto?"

"No, it doesn't. Kyubbi is actually much nicer than everyone thinks. She is as kind and as compassionate as you, Hinata. Maybe someday, I will be able to take you to go talk to her." He pulled down his shirt. "You are the best friend I person could ever had. Wanna go get some lunch?" He offered her his hand which she readily took. Infuriately, being in such close contact with Naruto made her light-headed and she tripped over her own feet, causing her to fall over on Naruto and being in the same position as in the Land of Waves, lucky for both, it would end up differently. Hinata moved her hand up and grasped the fabric of Naruto's mask and pulled down. She was spellbound by his face and slowly moved her face forward until their lips were mere centimeters apart. Hinata could feel Naruto's breath and his heart beating furiously in his chest and she pressed her lips up against his. Naruto couldn't explain what had come over himself and Hinata but she couldn't deny that he was enjoying it, though.

Inside Naruto's mind, Kyubbi was doing sort of a victory dance seeing Naruto finally kissing Hinata. **About time, damn it. After years of seeing each being best friends being oblivious to each other own feelings.**

Hinata and Naruto parted lips and they laid is spot without moving for several moments before Hinata got off of Naruto and started to go into panic and shy mode. "U-Uh, I-I'm s-s-sorry, N-Naruto-k-kun. I-I got c-caught in the m-m-moment and-"

She stopped when she felt a finger on her lips. "Don't worry too much, Hinata-chan. I enjoyed it, too. Now how about we get some lunch?" Hinata wrapped her hand around his, leaned on him and whispered to herself "I love you, Naruto."

"What was that, Hinata?" Naruto asked looking down at her.

"Nothing, Naruto. Just nothing."

Well, I think I may have rushed this chapter but I finally got something with Naruto and Hinata relationship so I get points for that, right? Kenshin states that he will be training Naruto but that will have to be an ongoing process because it took Kenshin several years to master Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu and Naruto isn't going to be to pull off all the skills in a short period of time. Reviews are nice, constructive critism is appreciated but no flames. Next chapter should be up faster than my past ones but can't be too sure. Until next time, Peace out.


	10. Chunnin Exams Part 1

Chunnin Exams

Chunnin Exams

"Hey, who are..." Normal talking

"**Kyubbi/ Inner Sakura speech or conversation"**

"_Normal thoughts"_

Ch.10

Naruto woke up fresh in the morning and he reflected on his lunch with Hinata. It was really at Ichiraku and they both had eaten their fill. A lot of people gave them glares and were wondering what the demon boy was doing with the Hyuuga princess. Hinata was blissfully unaware of the glares but Naruto shot back his own glares to challenge anyone who would dare to separate them. Luckily, no major distractions came by and Naruto was able to drop Hinata off at the Hyuuga manor in the afternoon.

He armed himself for whatever could happen for the Chunnin Exams. He pulled on his mask and walked out the door off the Academy. "I will see you later, Kenshin." Kenshin was enjoying a cup of tea again when he whispered to himself. "You are going to be seeing me a lot earlier than you think, Naruto."

-**At the Academy-**

Naruto waited to see if Sakura and Sasuke would arrive and twirled around his flute as he waited for them. Soon enough, Sakura and Sasuke arrived and Naruto both said a good morning. Sakura responded with a cheery "hello" and Sasuke gave a small grunt. They all walked in and were soon met with a crowd surrounding a door, being forced away by two older looking genin. A student with a bowl haircut wearing a green spandex suit was asking for admission into the room.

Naruto looked behind him and asked his team. "You guys noticed that we only walked up two flights of stairs, instead of three?"

Sakura answered. "You're right. This says room 301 but we have only walked up two flights which means there is a something wrong with the sign to that room. I assume it a genjutsu." Sasuke and Sakura made to dispel the genjutsu when Naruto stopped them both. "The less people that know, the less people we will have deal with in the Exams."

Team 7 quietly walked by but not before the spandex wearing boy saw them and excused himself from the older "genins". They continued to walk before they were stopped by a voice above them. They looked at saw the spandex wearing boy and he stated. "I, Rock Lee, challenge you to a fight, Sasuke Uchiha."

They all looked at him and they all immediately stared at his eyebrows, which were really thick and looked like they were almost moving by themselves. Everyone shuddered as they looked at them and even Kyubbi was shivering at the sight. Lee gave Sakura a wink and she quickly ducked behind Naruto.

Sasuke being a typical arrogant Uchiha accepted. They went to an empty room and they both stood about 5 paces from each other. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and waited for any type of jutsu that Lee could possible do so he could copy it.

Lee dashed forward and jumped up, surprising Sasuke with his speed. "Konoha Senppu!" He lashed his leg out and Sasuke threw his arms up to block the kick and was knocked off his feet. "What was that? I didn't see you do any hand signs."

"That is correct, Sasuke. I didn't do anything with hand signs." He dashed forward and went under Sasuke's guard and kicked him square in the chin, launching Sasuke up into the air and jumped up after him. Lee had unraveled his bandages and they started to wrap around Sasuke when a shuriken caught one the bandages, effectively stopping Lee's momentum and making both of them land on their feet on the ground. A voice rang out and all heads turned to it, which was a turtle. "Lee, how many times have I told to not to use that move?" Team 7 all thought the same thing. _Is the turtle his sensei?_

"I'm sorry. I got caught up in the heat of battle and-" The turtle cut him off. "Gai-sensei is going to talk with you now." A plume of smoke erupted from the back of the turtle and a man that looked exactly the same as Lee, except for a jounin vest and perhaps even bushier eyebrows. He stood before Lee and asked, "What did I say about using that move, Lee?"

Lee looked down and said, "Only when I was protecting some I cared about."

"Right." Gai punched square in the jaw and Lee flew away about five feet. Lee got up clutching his cheek. "As punishment after the Exams, you will need to do 2000 punches on a log."

"And if I can not that, I will do 2000 kicks. And if I can't do that, I will run around the village on my hands 200 times, Gai-sense!!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-senpai!"

They grasped onto each into a very manly hug and Team 7 and Kyubbi, especially Sasuke who's Sharingan was still activated, could only watch in horror as they hugged and a sunset background appeared behind them. They walked out of the room with Lee and Gai still hugging and yelling each other names.

"That was one of the most disturbing I have ever seen in my life." Naruto uttered to himself.

"**You're telling me that and I have seen some things that are disturbing in my entire lifetime." Kyubbi shuddered again. "I just hope we will never have to see that again."**

"_I agree with that, Kyubbi_. _Let's hope we won't have to see that again."_ Team 7 had arrived outside the room and was greeted by Kakashi. "Well, it seems that all three of you decided you guys were prepared to take the Exams. If one of you had decided not to show up, I would have had to force away the other two." He stepped aside and pointed at the door. "I'll see you all later, then."

Team 7 walked in the room and they were greeted with the sight with dozens of other teams that were milling around the tables.

A loud voice rang out. "Well, would look at that? All the rookies are here at the Exams." Team 7 turned and saw Kiba approaching with Shino, Hinata and the members of Team 10 following behind.

Shikamaru just yawned. "How troublesome. I don't even want to take this stupid exam."

"Well, TOO BAD! You're here and you are going to take it." Ino yelled in his ear. She turned over to Sasuke with hearts in her eyes. "Hi, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke only said. "Not interested." Ino cried tears of sorrow while Sakura was snickering behind Sasuke's back.

"Hey, Hinata." Kiba whirled around to see Naruto standing in front of Hinata and she was talking casually talking back to Naruto. He tried to rush over but was tripped by Shino and landed in an ungraceful heap.

"You guys should be a lot quieter, you know?" All rookies turned their head toward they voice and saw a young teen wearing glasses approaching them. "The name is Yakushi Kabuto."

"Who are you to tell us what to do?" asked Sasuke.

"That's because I have taken the test 6 times and this will be my seventh and I guess you can say I have a lot of information on teams here."

"Well, do you have information on Gaara of the Sand and Rock Lee of the Leaf?" Sasuke asked.

"Also, Uzumaki Naruto of the Leaf." Asked Kiba. All eyes turned on Kiba but no one said anything as they were all curious on what information there was on Naruto.

"Alright then. Garra of the Sand first." He pulled out a card and flipped it around. "Gaara, 0 D-rank, 10 C-rank, 2 B-rank and 1 A-rank." There were gasps and narrowed eyes as this. "But that even the surprising thing, it is said that he came back from every mission without a single scratch on him. Anyways, on to the next person."

Kabuto took out another card and read it out loud. "Rock Lee. 35 D-rank, 2 C-rank, no B or A rank. He is a taijutsu specialist and his teammates are Neji Hyuuga and Tenten. Now on to Naruto Uzumaki." All ears were open for this while Naruto could only glare and hope that not too much information was revealed.

"Uzumaki Naruto. 20 D-rank, 1 C-rank, and 1 A-rank. He is proficient in kenjutsu and a bow and arrow. Skills in ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu are unknown but is said to have skills in all three. He was adopted at the age of 4 and left the village traveling and returned to enroll in the Academy. That's all I have." Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, glad than not too much was revealed, especially about Kenshin.

The entire room was now glaring at the area where the Konoha rookies were standing and all sent a wave of killing intent, trying to intimidate the rookies into submission. Naruto who was at the back of the group sent an illusion and a wave of killing intent that dwarfed the weak killing intent the other ninja had sent over in their direction. Only three groups weren't affected which were the Sand team with Gaara, an odd team that had a music note on their headband and a Grass team.

A voice barked out. "SIT DOWN, MAGGOTS." Everyone rushed to their designated seats and waited for instructions. A scarred man leered down at them and spoke out in a booming voice. "My name is Morino Ibiki. I will be your proctor for the first part of your exam."

"This part of the exam will be a written exam. There will be ten questions. If you are caught cheating five times, he will be expelled from the exam and not allowed to come back." He passed out the exams to everyone in the room. "There are only nine questions on the exam. I will give the tenth questions 15 minutes before the end. I wish all good luck." He then muttered under his breath. "You're going to need it."

Naruto stared down at his test and looked over the questions. _You know Kyubbi, these questions seem way harder than they should for a genin to answer. And what was up about if you are caught cheating twice you get cut from the exams._ Naruto looked around the room and saw the many proctors sitting on the edges of the room, writing things down on a clipboard. _And they seem to have way too many proctors watching us. _

"**I believe it's possible that you were meant to cheat on this test but not in an obvious manner. I could give you all the answers, but where would be the fun of thinking up of a way to cheat."**

"_Thanks a lot, Kyubbi. You were such a big help."_

Naruto glanced around the room and saw various people already "cheating" with Sasuke and his Sharingan and Neji with his Byakugan. Naruto thought deeply for about 15 minutes trying to think up of a plan and he heard projectiles flying in his direction. He opened his eyes up and three senbons flew by his head and embedded themselves in the examiner's test behind. A female voice spoke up which Naruto had recognized to be Haku's. "Number 38, you are to get up and leave with your team."

The examiner spoke up in anger. "Are you kidding me? There is no way that you can be watching everyone in this room at once." Haku appeared in front of him and slammed him into a wall, and pinned him there with several senbons. All the examiners looked on while Haku walked up to the examiner. "Now let me get one thing straight, in this room, anything we say goes, so when one of say for you to leave, you are to follow it without questions, got it?" The examiner nodded his head and left the room with his teammates, clearly shaken. Haku walked back to her seat and gave a small wave to Naruto, who returned the wave. Naruto had gotten an answer off the person next to him while the entire class was distracted and he got an idea. He discreetly pulled out a charka smoke bomb out one of his bag and charged charka into it to have it explode in several minutes. He discreetly placed it on the floor and nudged it several seats over.

Ibiki had been watching Naruto the entire time and had expected something to happen when he saw the boy reach into his bag but nothing happened. A few minutes later though, a large explosion of smoke erupted from under an examiner's chair and utter chaos ensued. Naruto in under the smokescreen quickly made shadow clones and sent them under the cover of the smoke to copy answer from the tests. Once the clones had gotten an answer, they dispersed themselves and Naruto immediately had the answers and waited for the proctors to disperse the smoke to write down his answers. Ibiki kept a suspicious eye on Naruto but since he had made no outward signs of cheating, he couldn't do anything.

After 45 minutes had passed, Ibiki spoke up. "Alright, listen up maggots. Now for your tenth question. But, before I do that, I am going to pass this question over to someone else. And he should be here right about now." The door opened and everyone almost laughed as they saw Kenshin walk through the door. All the same thoughts ran through their heads "_This guy is a wimp." _

Kenshin spoke in a casual tone. "So I guess I'm here to administer the final question. Now, let me think…" The genin hopeful could only laugh inside at this person who was short skinny and not even qualified to be a ninja. Naruto could only stare apprehensively at what Kenshin nay do when he realized what he was going to do to the room. He focused his will and broke through Kenshin's intent when he turned forward and everyone felt their body under an intense pressure, though some were able to shrug off the effects to a lesser effect while it affected few at all like Naruto. "I decided to enforce a new rule this year. Anyone that doesn't want to take the tenth question, raise your hand so that you and your team can be removed from this exam."

Kiba along with many others were able to sort shrug off the effects to have a lesser effect asked, "Now why in the world we would not answer the tenth question?"

Kenshin answered in a deadly voice and a death glare. "Whoever fails to answer the question correctly will be banned from ever taking the Chunnin Exams again."

"What kind of garbage is this? There are people that have taken the test before and failed and are back here." Sasuke yelled out.

"Well, that's too bad. Our Chunnin Exams, our rules. Now choose." Kenshin lessened the pressure on the room and immediately several hands shot up and several teams left the room with heads down. Everyone else was wavering while Naruto looked coolly down at Kenshin. "So, Proctor-san, our entire ninja life banks on this question, correct?"

Kenshin gave Naruto the death stare and Naruto flinched under his gaze but quickly collected himself. "In a way, I suppose so."

Naruto stood up and slammed his hands against the desk. "Then so be it. I risk everything on this question. I may be stuck as a genin but that doesn't I can't outperform everyone I go against, even if the person is a Kage. So bring it on your stupid question."

Kenshin and Ibiki looked around the room and saw that they had a look of confidence on their face and were ready to face the question. Kenshin stepped back and Ibiki stepped forward again. "You all pass the first exam." Everyone only stared in shock at Ibiki as they processed the information.

"Wait a second. Why the hell did we do this test if we were going to pass in the end?" yelled Temari.

"Good question. Let me answer you with a scenario. You are given a mission to retrieve a scroll that will help you village greatly. The problem is there will be lethal traps and highly trained guards protecting this scroll. You are left with two choices: either move forward with your squad and retrieve the scroll but suffer causalities or turn back and return to your village scroll-less but with a full squad. As a shinobi and potential Chunnin, you become leaders of squads and you will be faced with scenarios like this. It is up to you to determine whether you can preserve and lead your squad to success. This first part of the exam was to test your skills in gathering information without being caught. Those who failed would have been captured and tortured in the real world, like this." Ibiki pulled off his headband and it revealed torture marks of all sorts. He grinned at the horrified and disgusted faces of the many genin.

A black ball suddenly burst through the window as he put back on his headband. It unraveled itself and two kunai stuck up onto the ceiling, revealing a trench coat wearing women with a large banner announcing herself as Mitarashi Anko, Proctor for the Second Exam. She stood in a pose that seemed to make herself look like the greatest and failed to notice the mood in the room.

"Wrong moment to enter, Anko." Ibiki muttered from behind the banner.

Anko looked at the genin in front of her. "What? Still 63 genin? You're slipping, Ibiki."

"Well, it seems this year's batch is much better than we thought." Ibiki casually responded.

"It doesn't matter. After my part of the exam, this number is going to be cut up by more than half." Anko motioned to the genin to follow her. "Let's go, maggots." She stooped again. "The Hokage sent me a message saying they would be a co-proctor for all parts of the Exams, so where's the person?"

Ibiki pointed at Kenshin and Anko's gaze followed his finger. She gave him one glance and immediately complained. "Oh, you have got to be kidding. There is no way this guy can be assisting us in these Exams. I mean, he doesn't even look fit enough to be a ninja, being so skinny."

Kenshin only looked at her. "So, are you going to defy the Hokage's orders, then?"

Anko started to say something but stopped and just made everyone follow her again, this muttering under her breath though.

**-At Area 44, the Forest of Death-**

"Welcome to the Forest of Death, maggots. This is where your next part of your exam will take place. You will spend five days inside the Forest of Death, trying to retrieve a Heaven and an Earth scroll. Each squad will be given one scroll and they will have to get the other one while in the forest. You are to bring both scrolls to the tower that is in the middle of this forest and instructions will be given then" She pulled out a wavier form. "Oh yea, you kids will have to sign this stating that Konoha is not responsible for any deaths or injuries while in there. Also, watch out for the animals in there that may be looking for a meal to eat." She looked at the faces and saw the fear of dying clear in many of their faces. She laughed inside at their fear but was quickly disappointed at Naruto's calm demeanor and lack of fear.

She smirked and threw a kunai at Naruto, who didn't bother moving or even flinch. The kunai grazed his cheek and blood started to drip out. Anko appeared behind him and hugged him in a very sensual manner. She brought her face to his cheek and licked the blood off very suggestively. "You know, it's the arrogant ones that die first you know?"

"Now, you ever said I was acting arrogantly and you might let go before you get stabbed." Anko looked and saw a kunai held in Naruto's hand, held at her gut.

Anko let and said, "It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, isn't it brat?" Anko quickly pulled out another kunai from her sleeve and put it on the throat of another genin from Grass. "I believe you dropped this." The genin's tongue was wrapped around the kunai and dropped into Anko's hand.

"Thanks, I guess." She wiped off the salvia and pocketed the kunai. "Each team will come up to the small booth over there where you will sing the waivers and receive a scroll. A guide will also direct you to gate and a whistle will sound and that will be the beginning of the exam. Understood?" All the genin nodded and one by one each team walked up to sign the waivers, given a Heaven scroll and were all guided to a gate. Team 7 waited at a gate and the when the whistle blew, they dashed inside and stopped in a clearing when Naruto said he needed to pee.

"Naruto, that's gross. Go somewhere else and do your business." Sakura berated.

Naruto looked at her suspiciously. "And if it was Sasuke that had said what I just did, would tell to do some place else, Sakura?" He walked out of the clearing to find a secluded place and quickly bit his finger and made hand sings to summon. He slammed his hand onto the ground and several small foxes came out of the plume of smoke. They all looked at him curiously.

Naruto kneeled down and clearly said, "Okay, I want you to go out and scout for us. Report back if you see anyone dangerous." All the foxes gave a short bow before darting off in different directions. Naruto stood up and pulled out his bow and arrows and tested the string. He suddenly nocked an arrow and shot it into a tree. There was a shout of pain and several branches were broken as the unknown spy fell from his perch.

The Mist ninja was on the ground, clutching a rib and trying to stop the wound on his shoulder when Naruto walked up to him. He tried to pull out a kunai to defend but Naruto shot an arrow and pinned the ninja's sleeve up against the trunk. Naruto stood over the ninja and knocked him out with a hard punch to the side of the face. He searched the ninja's pouch and found an Earth scroll. "What do you know?" He put the Earth scroll in his bag and tied the ninja up against the trunk of a tree.

He left the area and went back to the clearing they had stopped in. But when Naruto arrived at the spot, there was no one there but one of his foxes had come rushing back clearly distressed about something. He calmed it down and it pointed in the direction it had seen the danger before it poofed away. Naruto rushed off hoping the fox's direction led him to Sakura and Sasuke.

**-What happened while Naruto was gone-**

Sasuke and Sakura were waiting patiently for Naruto when a grass genin came out of the ground right near them. Sakura and Sasuke turned to face their unknown foe when they were caught under an intense pressure of killing intent and a genjutsu which made them see their own deaths. Sakura's legs gave out under her and Sasuke turned over and promptly puked out the contents of his stomach. They both looked fearfully at the grass genin who only laughed at their weakness. "So this is what the mighty Uchiha Sasuke can do? Pathetic." The grass genin released the killing intent again and both froze up again. The genin took out two kunai and pulled his and back to throw them.

Sasuke could only stare at his impending death as he gripped the kunai in his hand even tighter. _Damn it, I won't let it end this way. _The genin threw the kunai but Sasuke cut his leg with his kunai and quickly grabbed Sakura before dashing away from the genin.

The genin chuckled lightly as he stared at the spot where his two kunai were now stuck in the ground. "It seems that young Sasuke cut himself to break through my genjutsu." The genin licked his lips and gave chase to Sasuke. "Well, this makes the hunt so much better."

Sasuke was dashing through the trees with Sakura on his shoulders and didn't stop his breakneck speed until he was sure he had lost the powerful grass genin. He put Sakura gently on the ground and leaned against the tree to catch his breath.

A voice came from above them and they both looked up to see the grass genin above them. "Sasuke, did you really think that you would be able to escape from me?"

"What the hell do you want from me, freak?" Sasuke yelled out.

"Ku ku ku, wouldn't you like to know, Sasuke?" The genin dashed forward and threw a punch at Sasuke. He dodged it but was quickly grabbed with the other's genin hand and was thrown up into the branches of the trees. Sasuke flipped in the air and landed on a branch of a tree and saw the grass genin dash jumping after him. **Goukakyuu no Jutsu!!**__Sasuke spit a large fireball right in the trajectory of the grass genin but the grass ninja was able to dodge out of the way. Sasuke quickly spit out more fireballs but they were all dodged by the elusive grass ninja. The grass ninja came forth and punched Sasuke square in the face and Sasuke fell back to a lower branch. Sasuke fell onto the branch and tried to get up but failed.

"So this is how the mighty Sasuke goes down, but you still have something I want and I intend to get it." The grass genin neck started to stretch and with his jaw open wide, moved his neck forward to bite down on Sasuke.

"Get away from him, bastard!" An arm stretched out before Sasuke and the grass ninja mouth's clamped down on Naruto's arm leaving an odd mark with three commas on his arm. Naruto immediately started to writhe in pain and screaming out loud. Naruto's pain broke Sasuke out of his pain and he rushed over to Naruto.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Sasuke grabbed Naruto by his shoulder but Naruto could only scream in pain as he grasped his arm. Sasuke turned toward the grass genin. "What the hell did you do to Naruto?"

"I gave him a gift that will make him have powers beyond his wildest dreams." Naruto's continued screams spurred Sasuke to action and he activated his Sharingan, not knowing his third tomoe had been activated. He charged the grass genin and the grass ninja jumped back to avoid Sasuke's attacks.

Sasuke's eyes tracked him through every movement. _I can see his every movement. _The grass genin threw several kunai at him but Sasuke has seen it coming and twisted in the air, pulling out several windmill shruiken with wire attached and threw them at the grass genin. He used his hands and mouth to manipulate the wires to wrap around the grass genin and bind him to a tree. **Ryuuka no Jutsu!! **A wire that was in Sasuke's mouth caught flame and spread to all the other wires, acting as a guide as they traveled toward the grass genin at an alarming speed. The fire slammed into the genin and the genin screamed out in pain as the fire burned their skin. Sasuke fell to his knees and took several breaths to refill his lungs with air. He looked up and tried to find a burnt body tied to the tree but saw nothing and his wires cut. Sasuke tried to get up to fight again but he had used too much charka on the last attack and could only watch as he saw the grass appear in front of him.

A fake skin seemed to be peeling off his face but Sasuke couldn't do anything to defend himself. "Well, Sasuke. That attack was quite powerful but too bad it wasn't powerful enough." He the peeled the rest of the fake skin off and stretched his neck again to bite Sasuke. The mysterious genin bite down on Sasuke's neck and a three tomoe mark appeared on the back of Sasuke's shoulder and Sasuke started to scream while clutching his shoulder. The genin withdrew his neck and laughed. "In time, Sasuke, you and your friend will seek me out for power." He left the area, leaving behind his chilling laugh.

Sakura had been watching the entire time and could only stare at the writhing Naruto and screaming Sasuke and wondered what she could possibly do. Tears started to well up at her eyes as she started to fell useless and hopeless. "What am going to do, guys?"

-**Meanwhile with Anko and Kenshin-**

Anko was finishing a plate of danjo and threw the needle at a tree completing the Konoha symbol that she had been working on and Kenshin was silently meditating. "So where are you from, wimp?" Anko asked brashly.

"This one is now an ally and a shinobi of Konoha. That is all you need to know." Kenshin said without opening his eyes.

Anko walked over to him, bent over and said suggestively. "Are you sure you don't want to tell me anything?"

Kenshin opened his eyes and was greeted with an eyeful of Anko's assets and any other guy would have killed to be this close to Anko and see her up this close but Kenshin wasn't like other guys. "I told you everything I want you to know. There are some things in my past I rather not talk about." Those words struck Anko deep and she quickly stopped pestering Kenshin.

An Anbu appeared out of thin air and quickly delivered his message. "Anko-san, we have a situation."

-**Few minutes later, in a front of a row of statutes-**

Anko and Kenshin could only stare at the trio of victims that had their faces wiped clear off. Anko crouched down and looked at the damages and she muttered to herself. "This looks like the works of someone familiar." She looked more closely and her eyes widened in realization. "Orochimaru." She turned to the Anbu that had showed her the area. "Go report this to the Hokage and I will meet up with the Hokage after I have gathered more information on this event." The Anbu nodded his head and disappeared, while Anko dashed off into the forest. Kenshin had heard Anko say Orochimaru and knew something bad was happening and had decided to follow her to make sure nothing bad would happen.

**-In the Forest-**

Anko was currently jumping and flipping through the trees when she stopped and yelled out at a retreating figure's back. "OROCHIMARU!!"

The figure turned around and had a face of fake surprise. "Well, well, if isn't my old apprentice. How have you been holding up these past years?"

Anko spat out. "Fine, no thanks to you, snake."

Orochimaru put on a face of fake hurt, "Oh, your words wound me, Anko-chan. But I can assume we are not here to talk?"

Anko's face lit up in anger. "You're right. I'm here…TO KILL YOU!!" Anko pushed Orochimaru against the tree and stabbed her left hand together with his. "I'm going to need to borrow your hand here." She grabbed Orochimaru's right hand and started to perform seals.

"Oh, so you are planning to do that move?"

"Yes, I am and when we both die, I'll see you in hell."

"Too bad, I'm not real." The Orochimaru melted into mud and Anko ripped out the kunai out of the tree and threw it behind her. The real Orochimaru grabbed the kunai in between his fingers and snakes flew up to bind Anko's arms and legs together. He walked up and started to stroke her face. "My dear Anko, how does it feel to not be chosen? I have two new candidates in the forest right now and we shall see if they will survive if see another day. Oh, and don't tell Sartobi about my presence or I will bring about the destruction of this pathetic village." Orochimaru left the area and the snakes disappeared, leaving Anko alone and her curse seal started to act up. She grasped her shoulder and stood up in a hazy fog. She fell over and she felt herself caught by a strong pair of hands. She looked up and all she saw was an X-shaped scar on someone face before she completely passed out.

Well, I must say that chapter turned out the way I liked it. I guess I left a cliffhanger with Team 7 but I already have what I want to do with them. A while back, I was planning to save one of the sound genin and two of the sound five and I am thinking about doing the same thing here. Give me your opinion and if I should or shouldn't. I'll give about a week to give your opinions and we will see. Which means, remember to review my story. Reviews keep me motivated to continue writing this story. Constructive criticism is much appreciated and I already know my grammar suks. Until next tine, peace out.


	11. Chunnin Part 2

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Ch. 11

A lot of people are saying "Why does Naruto have a curse seal now?" or something about the curse seal that Naruto has received. I already have something planned for it but other than that. As for the kiss in Chapter 8, I believe, may I remind you people that they are only about 12 or 13 years old and don't know much about love and romance, etc so they didn't go very far with the kiss. I think no one else had said anything else about my story.

Chunnin Exams Pt. 2

Anko felt herself being carried by someone and blurrily opened her eyes. She saw an X-shaped mark on someone's face and reached out to touch it. The figure flinched when she touched the scar. "I see that you are awake now."

Anko rubbed her eyes and saw clearly that it was Kenshin. She looked around and saw she was being carried bridal style by Kenshin and quickly blushed before angrily pushing herself out of his arms. She put her legs on the ground. "I can walk by myself without any of help, boy." She took a few steps before stumbling and was caught by Kenshin, who had grabbed her hand before she fell.

"Forgive my interference, but I do believe that you aren't recovered quite enough from whatever Orochimaru did to you." He pulled her arm around his shoulder and supported her. "I am older than you think, Anko-dono."

Anko looked at his face and couldn't believe it. "There is no way you can be older than me with a face like that."

"Believe what you want, then. But I do believe we should have that mark examined by the Hokage." Anko nodded and they both moved as quickly as they could to the tower.

**-With Hinata-**

Kiba, Shino and Hinata were taking a break from running in the forest when a fox had come out, sniffing at the ground. It came up to Hinata and sniffed around her leg and started to pull on her pants. Hinata looked down and squealed. "KAWAII!" She immediately scooped it up and started to scratch it behind its ear.

"Hinata, where did that fox come from?" Kiba questioned.

Hinata shrugged her shoulder. "I don't know, but it's so cute." She rubbed her cheek up against the soft fur of the fox.

"Hinata, you shouldn't do that. Who knows what kinds of diseases or bugs that it has."

Hinata held the fox out and showed it to Kiba. "Could a face this cute possibly have anything wrong with it?" The fox gave a small yip and looked at Kiba. "Whatever. Just keep it away from me." Kiba moved away from Hinata and she looked downtrodden.

Shino walked up to Hinata and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hinata, ignore Kiba's attitude. I believe his dog-like tendencies also branched out into a dislike of foxes. I do believe we have had enough rest and I think we should progress to the tower as we already have both scrolls."

The fox ran up Hinata's arm and sat on her shoulder, wrapping its tail around her neck. Hinata scratched it behind the ear one more time before setting off again.

-**Team 7-**

Sakura had transported her two male teammates under the cover of some large roots of a tree. They were both unconscious and while Sasuke was mostly quiet, Naruto was writhing in his sleep and a mixture of different charka seems to seep out of him at a constant rate.

Sakura looked worriedly at them while rubbing her eyes to shrug off the sleep that had been creeping up on her. A trio of people were observing her and were about to make their move.

"I suggest we send out a decoy if see there are any traps hidden around her," said a male voice.

"Are you kidding me? A girl like that set up any trap? Please, she doesn't even look like she should be a ninja," said another male voice.

"Appearances can be deceiving, you know," said a female voice.

"Whatever. Let's just finish our job," said the first voice again.

Sakura was nodding off when she saw a squirrel dash in to the clearing near the tree and quickly threw a kunai, startling the squirrel and making it dash off into a different direction. Sakura gave a sigh of relief and turned back to Sasuke and Naruto.

-**Several Minutes Later-**

Sakura was alerted by the presence of several new people arriving in the clearing. One had his face covered in bandages; another had spiky black hair and a girl that was wearing a green vest. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"His name is Zaku." The spiky haired boy made a motion. "My name is Dosu and the girl's name is Kin. As for our purpose, we are here to kill Sasuke Uchiha," said the bandaged male.

Sakura immediately tensed up and pulled out a kunai to defend herself with. "Well, what are you waiting for? Come attack me so you can get to Sasuke."

"And fall right into your trap? I think not. The grass around this tree is brown which meant it has been turned over. Obviously, a trap had been laid down on the ground for any possible attacker that would come. But we also noticed something was wrong when we sent that squirrel into the clearing and you cleared it away from the grass." All three of the sound genin jumped into the air and Sakura gave a smirk and cut a wire behind her.

A large log flew out of the air directly at the sound genin and they looked shocked that they had been caught in a double-layered trap. Zaku smirked and put his arms forward and a large blast of air came out and destroyed the log into splinters. They landed on the ground and glared at Sakura.

"A well-placed two layered trap, but too bad it didn't work." All three advanced on Sakura. She quickly started to go through several plans in her mind to try to defend herself, Sasuke and Naruto but all her plans led to someone being seriously injured.

Sakura rushed forward and pulled out two kunai and slashed at the two males of the team. They quickly jumped out of the way and both attacked with their attacks, the spiky haired one with holes in his arm and the bandaged one with a gauntlet that seemed to do no damage until she stared to puke out the contents of her stomach. She fell to the ground, covered in cuts and holding her stomach. She stood up again but was blasted aside by Zaku. Dosu spoke up to Kin. "Kin, I want you to restrain her. I plan to mess around with her after I finish off the Uchiha."

Kin pulled out ninja wire and tied Sakura's hand behind her back. Sakura spoke quietly to her. "Why are you listening to those two jerks on your team?"

Kin gave a deep sigh. "Because I was forced to by Orochimaru and he gave them control to do anything to me. They haven't done anything yet but I know that they are thinking about it. I am scared of them and I don't know what to do."

Zaku and Dosu stood over Sasuke's body with kunai in hand and Dosu put his kunai up against Sasuke's throat. "Some challenging task this was." At that moment, a giant wave of dark charka exploded from Sasuke and a series of dark marks covered Sasuke's left side. Sasuke stood up in a zombie-like state and stared at Zaku and Dosu first before turning to looking and resting his eyes on Sakura and Kin. He muttered, "Sakura, who did that to you?"

Sakura could only stare at Sasuke and his bizarre appearance and wasn't able to from any coherent words.

Zaku spoke up. "We did all of that her and after we finish you off, we plan to have some fun with her."

"Is that so?" Sasuke moved in an instant and punched both Zaku and Dosu square in the face. They both flew back, clutching their faces. Zaku and Dosu instantly prepared their weapons to use on Sasuke but he had disappeared from their sights. They frantically looked around before they felt a hand on their throats. Sasuke was glaring at them with an evil glare and started to squeeze down on their throats. Zaku and Dosu started to gasp for air and trying to break Sasuke's grip on their throats. They blacked out and Sasuke dropped them on the ground and turned his direction over to Kin.

"You were teammates with those two scumbags and now its time for you to go with them." Sasuke walked over to Kin but was stopped by an oddly familiar figure with fox tails and fox ears put two fingers to Sasuke's forehead and uttered, "Sleep." Sasuke's eyes closed and he fell to the ground, curse marks receding.

The figure turned around to Sakura and Kin. Sakura let out a gasp of shock as she recognized the person to be Naruto, without his mask, and could only babble out incoherent words as her mind tried to recover from the shock.

"Sakura, please close your mouth and speak only when you are ready."

Sakura flinched and took several deep breaths for several seconds to calm herself. She looked at Naruto and asked, "Are you Naruto and if you are, why are you like that?"

"I am Naruto and as for my appearance, I going to need to explain from the beginning. Please save your questions until I stop talking." (AN: Too lazy to explain the whole story, so imagined that he told the story of the 4th and that Kyubbi is sealed within him. Sakura still won't know of Naruto's heritage.) "And that is my story up until now. As for my appearance, it started when I was taking down Mizuki and was calling upon Kyubbi's charka for the first time. Since then, it has appeared a few times but this it seems that it will have a more permanent effect.

**-Flashback in Naruto's mindscape during the arrival of the sound genin-**

**Naruto was currently running through the various halls in his mind, with waves of dark charka pursuing him. He appeared back in Kyubbi's room and backed up against her cell. The dark charka latched onto to Naruto and started to swallow him whole when Kyubbi appeared out of the shadows of her cell and blasted the dark charka back into the depths of Naruto's mind.**

"**That was a close one, Kyubbi."**

**Kyubbi gave him a sharp look. "**_**Care to tell why there are waves of foreign charka flowing through your body right now?"**_

**Naruto gave a shrug. "I don't know. After I had gotten bitten by some weird grass genin, I fell unconscious because of some mark appeared on my arm. I then found myself in here being chased around by that dark charka."**

"_**You got bitten and a mark appeared on your arm? God damn it Naruto, you been marked with a curse seal and it seems intent with corrupting your body with its charka."**_

**Naruto looked worried. "Is there anyway to get rid of it?" **

"_**Well, there are several ways but they all require a large amount of charka and I don't know how your charka coils could take that much stress before they all just explode. Also, the area that is being targeted could possibly be blown off which is never a good thing." **_

**Naruto blanched at the thoughts of having body parts blown. "Is there something we can use to lessen the effects?"**

"_**Well, we could always use a medium that will be able to absorb the dark charka rather that forcefully expelling it from your body, but the only thing on hand that we can possibly use is your sword."**_

"**So be it, then." Naruto was about to leave the mind when Kyubbi stopped him. **

"_**Naruto, there are also some other side effects to exposing your body to that a large portion of my charka. First off, it could make you into a half demon permanently but its effects will only occur during certain times of the months so you can still look relatively normal most of the time. There could be other effects but I can't really say what can happen."**_

**Naruto looked grim. "To get rid of this mark from my body, I'm willing to do anything."**

Naruto woke up and pulled out his katana and placed the tip of the sword on the curse mark._ "Kyubbi, are you ready?"_

"_**Give me a few seconds."**_ Kyubbi started to focus a large portion of charka around the curse seal and Naruto could feel forming around the seal. **"DO IT, NOW!" **Naruto stabbed down on his arm while Kyubbi simultaneously released the charka forcing the curse seal's charka into the sword which absorbed the combined charka. Naruto hissed in pain as he felt the seal being forced away from his arm and infusing into the sword. He felt the dark charka receded into the sword and slowly pulled the sword from his arm, wincing as he felt the blade slide out of his arm. The sword gave off a very menacing aura and Naruto quickly sheathed the sword and sealed it into a scroll to keep it for later.

He looked at the mark where the curse seal was and in its place was a large scar in the form of the curse seal that was on his skin seconds ago. He was about to give a sigh of relief when he felt a pulse of Kyuubi's charka pulse through his body and he fell to the ground on all fours, fox features starting to appear over his body. After several long seconds, Naruto stood back up, breathing heavily. He looked over his body and noted his hands now had claws and he felt something flowing behind him. He turned around to see several tails behind him and quickly tried to contact Kyubbi. "_Kyubbi, you there?"_

_**Kyubbi responded in a weak voice. "Yes, Naruto. I'm here. It seems that I put a bit too much charka in removing the seal and the excess has made you transformed for now. You are going to be stuck like that for a bit." Kyubbi gave a weak groan. "Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to take a short nap…"**_

Naruto quickly tried to talk to Kyubbi again but all attempts were met unanswered responses. Naruto quickly left his mind as he felt a great surge of dark charka and quickly turned to its source. Sasuke had just finished knocking out the two male Sound genin and was now bearing down on the lone female genin that was standing near Sakura. Naruto disappeared in a flash and quickly stopped Sasuke with a quick jutsu that put the receiver into a dreamless sleep.

-**Flashback End-**

Sakura was left with no words as she just continued to stare at Naruto.

"Sakura, snap out of it. I'm still Naruto, you know. But who is the girl behind you?" Naruto pointed at Kin, who was currently trying to hide herself behind Sakura.

Sakura snapped out of her daze. "Her name is Kin. She one of the Sound Genin but I don't think she like the other two."

Naruto walked up to Sakura and moved her aside to look at Kin. "So, you were on the team with the other two?" He looked at her carefully. "You have been abused by your teammates, haven't you?"

Kin could only silently nod as she believed she had kept it well hidden from everyone around her back in the Sound Village. She could only wonder as this person or rather fox person be able to analyze her so easily.

"I can see that you are living in fear of your teammates and what they could possibly do to you, physically and mentally. How would you like to get away from all of that?" Kin's eyes lit up at the offer and quickly narrowed in suspicion. "Why are you doing this? You planning to hold me captive or make you prisoner, aren't you?"

Naruto stepped back. "Do I have any reason to keep you prisoner? You haven't shown any hostile actions toward Sakura or Sasuke and I can see in your eyes that you want to escape the current life that you are living." He extended a hand forward.

Kin tentatively took his hand and Naruto pulled her up. "Now, that wasn't hard. Now to get you to somewhere safe and where questions won't be asked." Naruto summoned a medium-sized fox and it bowed to him in respect. Naruto whispered in its ear and it nodded at its direction. "Kin, this fox will take you somewhere safe and you shouldn't be found and you will be well-protected." Kin jumped on the back of the fox and it instantly started moving, giving Kin barely enough time to hold on to it.

"Now that we have that resolved, Sakura, you should get some rest. You have been standing watch for too long and you need to keep your strength up for the rest of this exam." Sakura wanted to protest but a stern gaze from Naruto made her shut her mouth and comply with his request. Naruto tied up Dosu and Zaku up to a tree some distance away from where Sasuke and Sakura were at and sat down waiting for them to come back to consciousness.

**-2 hours later-**

Dosu and Zaku woke up and shook their heads to get rid of the haziness around their eyes. They tried to move their arms but soon found out that their arms were tied against the tree. They looked around to locate the person that could have tied them up and they saw Naruto, sitting in the shadows of a tree, glaring at them. "Hey you, come over here are untie us."

Naruto's glare hardened and he stood. "After attacking my team, threatening to kill Sasuke, did you really think I would be kind enough to let you go? I plan to get a little information before I torture you within an inch of your life. We can either do this the easy way of the hard way."

Zaku laughed out loud. "Ha, do your worst which I doubt is going to be much."

Naruto grinned in a sadistic fashion and moved out from the shadow of the tree, revealing his fox ears and tails waving behind in a wild fashion. "I was hoping you would say that." He descended upon them, and screams soon came from the area and echoed all over the Forest of Death.

-**About 30 minutes later-**

Naruto dusted his hands off and walked back to where he had left a clone to watch over Sakura and Sasuke. Zaku and Dosu were still tied against the tree, muttering incoherent phrases, cuts and several missing body parts. Naruto thought over all the information that he had gotten especially about the man that had ordered them to attack Sasuke, Orochimaru. He arrived at the clearing and Sakura had already woken up and was tending to a still sleeping Sasuke. "So, how is he holding up?"

Sakura looked up and saw that Naruto's fox features were gone but made no comment. "He's sleeping peacefully and no signs of those weird marks on his body."

Naruto looked up into the sky and looked at the position of the sun. "We need to move out."

"But Naruto, Sasuke is resting and we can't disturb him."

"I'm sorry, Sakura. Time is against us right now and we need to get to the tower as quickly as possible. We still may have 2 days but that we must include everything that could possibly hinder us from getting to the tower. The faster we get to the tower, the faster we can get Sasuke some attention to that mark on his back. I managed to get an Earth scroll near the beginning of the Exam."

Sakura nodded. "Okay, Naruto."

-**Three hours later-**

Sakura was currently in front of Naruto, who was carrying Sasuke on his back and the tower was in sight. They landed in front of the tower and Sasuke started to shift on Naruto's back. "Uh, what the hell happened?"

Naruto dropped him to the ground. "Ow! What the heck was that for?"

"I have been carrying you for the last three hours while you were off in dreamland. You have two legs, use them." He offered Sasuke a hand of which Sasuke took. "Well, let's go inside." They opened the doors and were greeted with a large empty hall with the exception of a banner that had several lines written on it. They all read it and looked at the Heaven and Earth scroll that they had collected. They all looked at each other and they opened the scrolls.

Smoke began to billow out of the scrolls and they dropped the scrolls on the ground and eyed them suspiciously until a familiar voice said, "Congratulations on passing the second part of the exam." Iruka came out of the smoke and everyone gave a sigh of relief.

"Iruka-sensei, we thought someone was going to come out and attack us. Anyways, what is with the giant banner on the wall over there?"

"That banner represents what it means to become a Chunnin. Heaven represent knowledge and Earth represents strength. If you have both traits, then you are ready to become a Chunnin. Since you guys got here a day early, you can use this time to rest and do whatever you like."

Naruto muttered something about checking his swords; Sasuke went off to go try to get some more training before the third exam and Sakura went off to go find a place to rest.

-**With Naruto-**

Naruto was sitting in front of his katana and was staring at the dark aura that came off of it. He stood up and walked over and picked up the sword. He put his hand on the sheath and almost instantly dark marks started to appear on Naruto's skin starting on his hand and started to creep up his arm. He gave a shout of alarm and sheathed it again and threw to the other side of the room. The sword looked harmless again albeit with the dark aura still emanating from it.

"I going to need Kyubbi's help for this and since she is still out of commission, I'll have to deal with it later." He sealed it back into the scroll and went to go explore the tower.

-**Hinata-**

Hinata was currently walking listlessly through the tower, with the fox she had picked up from the forest resting contentedly on her shoulder. She made to pet it but it had darted off her shoulder and rushed down the hall she was walking. She chased after and she found it at someone's feet. She looked up and saw that it was Naruto. "So, I see you managed to pick up one of my little foxes." The small fox yipped happily and ran circles around before returning back to Hinata. "And it seems had taken a liking to you. So how was the forest, Hianta?"

Hinata looked at Naruto and started to reiterate how her team had gotten their second scroll shortly after the exam had started and had proceeded as quickly as possible to the tower. They had passed by the sand genin team and were thoroughly afraid of one member of the team, a red-haired boy that Naruto was able to instantly connect with Garra. "What exactly did he do, Hinata-chan?"

Hianta shivered as she brought back the memory. "I had just recently found the fox when we stopped to observe the Suna team. They were facing a Kiri team and they seemed to be at a disadvantage. Akamaru and the fox were shaking and giving off warnings which we didn't understand until he ruthlessly killed the Kiri team by crushing them in sand. After he sent his sand out in our direction and we instantly froze seeing our imminent death but one of his teammates was able to talk him out of killing more people and they left the clearing to our great relief. Afterwards, we proceeded here in about four hours' time. We have been resting ever since. How the forest for you, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto rubbed the spot where the curse seal had been on his right arm. "Our team was attacked by several other teams but it wasn't anything that we couldn't handle."

Hinata eyed the spot Naruto was rubbing. "What's wrong with your arm, Naruto?"

Naruto looked down as Hinata and quickly turned away. "It's nothing, Hinata."

Hinata pulled up Naruto's sleeve and saw bandages wrapped around his arm. "What happened, Naruto?" He ripped his arm out of Hinata's grip and looked dark. "I said nothing, Hinata. Now, if you excuse me, I need to go." He walked off in a hurry and left a bewildered and hurt Hinata behind.

-**A few minutes later-**

Naruto was sitting against the wall and unwrapping the bandages on his arm. A nasty scar that had charka burns and an odd mark that signified that a curse mark had been there was all that remained of the curse seal. He sighed and could only wonder if he had been too forceful in guarding his scar. He went to his resting quarters and lay on the bed hoping to get some rest.

**-In a different part of the tower-**

A certain snake man and his loyal assistant were observing in the shadows Saskue, who was training on some wooden dummies. An oily voice spoke up in a soft tone. "How is he holding up and where are the sound genin I sent out?"

Kabuto spoke in an equally low soft tone. "Sasuke is reacting well to the curse seal though we don't know how much he had used it. I scouted the forest for the sound genin and I found Dosu and Zaku, which several large wounds and tied to a tree and they were muttering something which I couldn't distinguish. I have healed their wounds and given them a sedative to keep them in a dreamless state of sleep. Kin has disappeared somewhere in the forest but I am still currently looking for her."

"Good, I expect results in several days. You know what your orders are now and I expect to see you to do your tasks perfectly. Understood?"

"Yes, Master." Kabuto gave a bow and disappeared into the shadows.

"Ku ku ku. Soon, I will have you in my hands, Sasuke-kun."

God, I feel so bad about taking so long to update this chapter but a whole lot of events have been happening with me so I couldn't write as much. Currently, I have way too many ideas for new stories and for this one. I might post my ideas or people can pm me to ask about my ideas and wrote as story for it. Review, people. Reviewing helps me get more ideas and makes me update faster. Constructive criticism is appreciated because it helps me to write better. I also know my grammar sucks so don't review to tell me that. I will try to get the chapter out in two weeks, but I can't make any promises.

Next chapter: Start of the Chunnin preliminaries


	12. Preliminaries and Plans

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Ch. 12

Preliminaries to the Third Exam and Plans

Six teams were lined up in front of the Hokage and he could only looked down and make a quick observation. _Out of all the genin to enter, some of the youngest and the rawest have passed on. _The Hokage stepped forward and addressed the genin. "I am proud to address all of you who have passed the Second Exam." He cleared his throat. "But these exams serve another purpose other than the promotion of genin." Most of the genin wore faces of confusion and looked back at the Hokage for further answers.

"I congratulate all that have passed the second part of the Chunnin Exams. Before we start the next part of the exams, I would like to explain the reason for these Exams. I'm sure many of you believe that this is just a test to pass on to the rank of Chunnin, but there is another reason which you may not be aware of." Most of the genin had looks of confusion on their faces when they heard that statement.

"The Chunnin exams in short could be said as a miniature war. As you have all saw, other ninja villages have sent their own ninja to compete in these not to give a chance to promote their ninja but also as a way to gauge the strength of other hidden villages. These exams attract the attention of potential employers and lords of the lands. So without further ado, I will-"

A blur appeared in front of the Hokage. "Excuse me, Hokage-sama, but would you allow me, Gekkou Hayate, proctor of the Third Exam to present the rules." The Hokage gave a nod and Hayate appeared on the floor with the genin. He had a coughing fit but recovered but continued to cough every several words. "Before we start this exam, is there anyone that would like to drop out now?"

There was a wave of silence before Kabuto raised his hand. "Yakushi Kabuto, right? You are cleared to leave." He left the room with one pair of eyes that glared at him suspiciously.

"If everyone else is staying, I am here to state that we need to have preliminaries before we start with the Third Exam."

Ino gave a shout of disbelief. "Are you kidding me? We just got through the forest and now you expect us to fight each other to see if we can get into the next round?"

Hayate gave a short cough. "If you disagree, you are free to leave." Ino quickly became quirt after that statement. "As I was saying, we will be having one vs. one match. You are allowed to use any jutsu to disable you opponent. The match is over either when I call it or when the opponent is unable to fight. The names of the first fighters will appear on the screen behind me and will those fighters please remain on the floor while everyone else go up on the balcony above.

A screen appeared behind the statue of the ram seal and the names were: **Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akadou Yoroi. **(This battle proceeds as normal in canon.)

The screen flashed again and the two names that appeared were: **Nara Shikamaru vs. TenTen. **

Shikamaru muttered something that sounded like troublesome while Tenten had her own cheer squad with Lee and Gai, spouting something about the 'Power of Youth'.

Both combatants walked down to the bottom and squared off against each other. Shikamaru had a face and posture that cleared showed he didn't want to be there at the moment and muttering something about having to fight a girl while Tenten was getting annoyed at the boy's clear lack of enthusiasm. Hayate raised his hand and brought it down. "Hajime!!"

Tenten jumped back immediately and Shikamaru analyzed the distance that she had jumped. _About four paces away; a good distance to attack and defend from. _He was broken from his thoughts when various weapons were thrown in his direction and he had to jump to the side to avoid them.

After about two minutes, Shikamaru was covered in cuts and several areas on his body where weapons had hit. He was breathing heavily while Tenten had not even broken a sweat yet. She gave a small smirk and confidently spoke, "Ready to give up yet?"

"As if I would ever choose to lose to a girl." Shikamaru coolly replied.

These words made a rather large tick mark to appear on Tenten's forehead. "You're going to play for saying those words." She jumped several more places and places two scrolls several feet from each other. She stood in the middle and went through several hand signs before jumping into the air with scrolls following her. "Dual Rising Dragon!!"

She started to unsummon the weapons in the scrolls and spin around; releasing a never ending wave of weapons which Shikamaru had an extremely difficult time evading. He came out with more scratches than he would have liked but was still standing.

Tenten growled under her breath and confidently spoke out. "You may have been able to avoid my first wave of attacks but you won't be able to dodge this." She flipped her hands and a wave of wire shone in the light, connecting her hands to the weapons that were littered on the ground.

Shikamaru's eyes lit up at his chance to strike and instantly went through hand seals. Tenten was about to whip the weapons at Shikamaru when she suddenly lost all control of movement in her body and she landed back on the ground. "What the heck did you do to me?"

"Kagemane no Jutsu, a success." A long thin shadow had extended from Shikamaru and had connected to Tenten. "Well, it seems that we are at a stalemate until I run out of charka, but fortunately that isn't in my plans." He stooped down and picked a weapon from off the ground that were littered all around the floor and Tenten followed suit.

He pulled his arm back that had the weapon and Tenten's eyes widened. "You can't be serious? If I am copying your movements and you are throwing that, we are both going to hurt ourselves seriously." Shikamaru ignored her warning and released the weapon, making Tenten release her own. The weapons was several inches from their faces when Shikamaru suddenly bent over from his waist while releasing his Kage Mane jutsu just in time for Tenten to look at the incoming wall and having her face crash into, rendering her unconscious.

Shikamaru flipped around and landed on his feet. "A smart shinobi pays attention to their surrounding.

"Winner of the first match, Nara Shikamaru."

The screen flashed again and it showed: Uzumaki Himura Naruto vs. Inuzaka Kiba.

Kiba gave a jubilant whoop as he announced that this would be an easy fight while Naruto only jumped down onto the floor, passively staring at Kiba was celebrating at his preemptive victory.

"Aren't you the confident one?" Naruto calmly said.

"I've grown stronger since we have graduated from the Academy and I not even going to use Akamaru to defeat you." He knelt down and pushed Akamaru off to the side. Akamaru gave a few small whimpers saying not to underestimate Naruto but Kiba ignored his warnings.

Naruto's response was to nock an arrow onto his bow and readied it to fire.

"Pfft, you are going to use a bow and arrow against me? You are never going to hit me with that." Kiba taunted arrogantly. Kurenai was shaking her head at his arrogance and received what she perceived to be a sympathetic look from Kakashi when she glanced to see his reaction to the battle.

"Hajime!!" Kiba immediately dashed forward, surprising Naruto with his quick movement and slammed his shoulder into Naruto's gut, slamming him into the opposite wall. A large dent was made into the wall and Kiba arrogantly told the proctor to call the match. Kiba whirled around when he heard rubble moving and saw Naruto was dusting himself off. In one hand held a bow that had been broken in half and he placed it on the ground.

"Was that all you had, Kiba? Because if it was, you don't have much of a chance to defeat me."

Kiba gritted his teeth. "Come on, Akamaru. Let's go beat Naruto." Akamaru gave few small yips and jumped next to Kiba. "Get ready to lose, teme." Kiba threw a smoke bomb at Naruto's feet which exploded and he sent Akamaru to attack Naruto. Unfortunately, before Akamaru could dart into the smoke, he was pushed by a sharp gust of air and the smoke dissipated leaving Naruto in the middle wielding his sakabato.

"That piece of crap that can't even cut?" Naruto's eyes narrowed in irritation but kept a calm demeanor. Kiba fed a soldier pill to Akamaru turning his fur red and allowed him to turn in change into a replica of Kiba. "Let's go Akamaru! Getsuga!" Both Kiba and Akamaru turned into swirling vortexes of claws and charged into Naruto's direction.

Naruto could only barely dodge the claws made a wrong step which gave Kiba an opening to hit Naruto straight in the chest, which threw Naruto back and made him land in a heap several feet away. "Ha ha, loser. After this match, Hinata is going to see how much of a loser you are and forget all about you. She will come to me and become my girlfriend."

Naruto got off the ground and glared at Kiba with red eyes. "You are going to regret ever saying those words."

"Big words coming from the person who is currently losing." Naruto dashed at Kiba who stood his ground thinking he could take any attack that he threw at him. Naruto suddenly disappeared from his line of sight and looked down just in time to see him under him and a foot connecting with his stomach knocking him up into the air and jumping up after him.

Kiba growled angrily at Naruto and twisted his body in the air to kick at him only to have his foot go right through. "Seems you hit my afterimage, Kiba." He looked up to see Naruto above him and sword swinging down. Kiba came crashing down to the ground and didn't get up from the ground. Akamaru rushed over and tried to assist but was grabbed by the scruff of his neck and lifted off the ground by Naruto.

Kiba got groggily off the ground when he heard a whimper from Akamaru. He looked up and saw Naruto holding the underside of his sakabato close up to Akamaru's neck. "Hey, let him go."

Naruto gave him a hard stare. "Take back what you said about Hinata."

Kiba gritted his teeth. "Never, loser." Naruto pressed his sword up against Akamaru's throat. Kiba gulped and brashly spoke. "Why the hell do you care so much about Hianta, she just a girl."

"Just a girl, huh? Is that what Hinata is to you? Well to me, Hinata is much more than just a girl. She is my best friend-_and possible girlfriend-_ and I not going to let someone like you even get close to her." He let Akamru go and Akamaru dashed over to Kiba's side. "I suggest you surrender now."

Kiba tried to get up but his body wouldn't allow it. "Proctor, I surrender."

"The winner of this match is Uzumaki Himura Naruto." Several medics came out with a stretcher and escorted Kiba to the medical wing. Naruto walked up the stairs and stopped when Hinata had walked up to him.

Hinata stuttered out. "Congratulations on your victory, Naruto."

Naruto gave a small smile from under his mask. "Thanks, Hinata." They stood for several seconds before Hayate's voice announced the next competitors. "Will Kankuro and Tsurugi Misumi, please come down to the floor."

The next fight ended with Kankuro leaving his opponent in a mangled heap of broken bones. The fight after was with Gaara and Lee, which left Lee with a broken body after using Omote Renge, Ura Renge and the Celestial Gates and Gaara taken aback by Gai's declaration about Lee. The sixth battle was between Sakura and Ino, who had both battled their hearts out and refused to give in to each other, but defeat grasped them both and were knocked out of the exams. Shino and Choji fought in the seventh and even though Chouji was able to pressure Shino with Meatball Tank, he just wasn't able to keep up with Shino and his Kikaichuu bugs which were found to be living inside his body when he was examined by Neji with his Byakugan.

The screen flashed it caught the attention of all the Konoha ninja in the arena. **Hinata Hyugga vs. Neji Hyugga. **

Both participants walked down to the floor and stood there for several seconds, looking at each other. Neji was the first to speak with a forced smirk on his face. "Hinata-sama, I wish you no harm. I suggest you resign before I am forced to harm you. Fate has already deemed me as the winner of this match" Neji expected his words to scare Hinata into a submission but instead Hinata stared back at him with determined eyes. "I suggest you keep your words to yourself, Neji-oniisan."

Neji's face quickly turned into a frown. "So be it, then." Both put their hands into a seal. "Byakugan!!" Veins bulged around both of their eyes and they both slid into the juuken stance.

"Hajime!" They both dashed at each other and started to trade blows, with whips of charka shooting out from their fingers.

Sakura, who had woken from her battle with Ino, was watching the battle with curiosity. "Kakashi-sensei, what kind of fighting stance is that?

"Though, I am not totally clear about it, I believe it to be the strongest style's of taijutsu in the Leaf Village, the Hyugga style, Juuken."

Gai who had been listening decided to add more information. "The Hyugga had utilized their bloodline, which allows them to see the charka points in a human body, into their own juuken stance, targeting the charka points in the body to disable their opponents and defeat them. A grazing hit by a Hyugga could spell for dangerous results and all of their attacks involve charka."

Hinata and Neji were still battling for dominance when Hinata saw a small opening. She kicked Neji in the gut and sent him skidding several feet back. "Well, it seems you have learned some new tricks but that won't be enough to defeat me." He charged again and Hianta charged with her palm ready to strike when it was grabbed by Neji. He pulled back her sleeve and several red dots could be seen on her arm. "Ah, you can see Hinata-sama, your fate was sealed when you were chosen to fight me." He struck her in the chest and pushed her away with a double charka palm strike to her stomach. She crumpled to the ground, grasping her stomach and coughing up some blood.

"Proctor, I suggest you call this match. I will not be responsible fro anything that will happen if this continues." Neji turned away from Hinata and started to walk.

"Running away from me, Neji? Running away from your so-called fate that you are meant to defeat me?" Neji whirled around and gave a fierce growl. Hinata was back in a fighting stance but it was the juuken. Instead, her hands were at her side, legs slightly apart and she looked back with a calm demeanor.

Neji gave a confident smirk. "You think you can defeat me? You can't even use charka now." (AN: Neji is saying she can't use charka because the stomach, I assume, is where charka is drawn from and he attacked with a double charka palm."

"Why don't you come forth and try, oniisan?" Neji gave a shout and dove at her intent at shutting her up for good when her arms lashed out and grabbed him. She used his forward momentum to trip him and he skidded on the ground. He recovered in mid-skid and rushed forward with one hand forward and aimed for Hinata's face. She blocked his hand at his wrist and immediately followed up with a kick square to his chin and quickly spinning on one foot and kicked him in the side.

Neji angrily got up off the ground. "Enough of this foolishness. Hinata, you are in the range of my divination." Hinata's eyes could only widen in shock before Neji attacked.

"2 palms! 4 Palms! 8 palms! 16 palms! 32 palms! 64 palms! Hakke Rokujuuyonshou!"

Hinata flew back and crumpled on the ground, coughing up more blood from before. "Now time to finish this once and for all!" Neji jumped up and aimed for Hinata's heart. There were several bodies that moved in an instant. Neji soon found him self held on the arm by Gai and fingertips on his hitate by Hayate. "I see this is favoritism for the Main House of the Hyugga."

"Actually, this is for your own protection." Hayte said.

Neji caught sight of the blade that was dangerously close to his throat and looked to his right to see Naruto being restrained by Kakashi and Kurenai. Naruto's eyes had turned a deep crimson and seemed to wish for the death of Neji right at that moment. Several medics rushed out and immediately placed her on a stretcher and rushed her to the medic ward. The jounin left of their captives and each sent each other a glare that dropped the temperature in the arena several degrees. Naruto bent down and swiped his fingers on floor, swiping up some of Hinata's blood. He grasped it around his sword and pointed it at Neji. "On Hinata's blood, I promise to defeat you." He sheathed his sword and stalked back up the stairs.

Neji just gave a scoff and muttered to himself. "A loser making a promise to a loser. How pathetic."

After the tension had died down, Hayate had announced that Temari would automatically move on to the next round dude to a lack of competitors. The eight finalists lined up on the floor. "Now, we will be drawing lots for the finals to determine your opponents." Each competitor reached into the box that had the lots.

Sasuke: 8

Shikamaru: 6

Naruto: 1

Gaara: 7

Kankuro: 3

Shino: 4

Neji: 2

Temari: 5

"The matches have been decided. Naruto will face Neji, Kankuro will face Shino, Temari will face Shikamaru and Gaara will face Sasuke. The finals will occur a month and a half from now. Use that time to train yourself for the finals. And remember, many nobles and lords will be coming from all over the lands so uphold the strength and honor of your village."

-**Later that day-**

Kenshin had come home to the apartment to have a strange girl sitting in his living room, petting what seemed to be a large fox. He quickly explained her position and why she was sent here and Kenshin accepted it. He made her some tea and waited for the arrival of Naruto.

Naruto arrived later due to the exams and sat down at the table. "Kenshin, so did you like proctoring for the exams?"

Kenshin placed his tea cup down. "It was certainly interesting. Met and interesting woman, too."

Naruto got a crafty grin under his mask. "Hmm, did you already get a girlfriend?" Kenshin gave him a glare and Naruto couldn't help but smile as if he was right.

_**Naruto, stop trying to pry into Kenshin's private life. It's none of your business. **_

_Fine, whatever you say, Mother. _

"Actually, it's more like an acquaintance. Her name is Anko. The one wearing the fishnet shirt with the overcoat and skirt."

Kin burst out. "That crazy lady!! She gives me the creeps."

"I believe there is a reason why she acts that why and I believe I know the reason why. But aside from that, Naruto, I think it is time that I started training you in the style of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu. Along with that, I have asked the village's leading swordsman to help in this training. This training is in preparation for the Finals coming in a month and a half. Are you up for the challenge?"

Naruto gave a small nod. "Good, now for you Kin. It seems that Orochimaru is planning something, do you know what?"

"He is planning to destroy the Leaf Village. He secretly made an alliance with the Sand Village and is expecting their help in the destruction. I heard Gaara was going to be a major component but I never heard what his actually purpose would be."

Kenshin looked down deep in concentration. "We will need to share this information with the Hokage. Tomorrow, we will go to the Hokage's office to tell him and we will figure out what to do from there."

"Sounds like a plan, Kenshin."

Yay to another finished chapter. Being lazy over the summer has not done me any good other than delay the updates to this story. I apologize for my slowness. Anyways, as usual, constructive cristism is accepted and always appreciated as it helps me to improve my story. I would also like feedback on my fight scences because I don't think they are very good but I will leave that to the readers. Unitl next time, Peace out.

Preview of next chapter:

What are the plans to defeat Orochimaru in his plot to destroy the Leaf Village? Does Anko have an eye for our elder swordsman? What are Naruto's plan in his fight against Neji? Find out next time!!


	13. Chapter 13

Ch

Ch. 13

Training, friendship and possibly love?!

"Normal Speech"

'**Demon Speech'**

"**Talking to Demon"**

"_Thoughts"_

Kenshin, Naruto and Kin were all currently in the Hokage's office and was explaining what Orochimaru was possibly doing in the village. Sarutobi listened with a grave face and when they were done, got up off his chair and looked out his window overlooking the village.

Kin suddenly had another comment. "I forgot to mention this to you yesterday, but I think Orochimaru wants to do with Uchiha Sasuke. We were ordered to kill him for some reason but we never knew that he would have had a curse seal."

Sarutobi turned around and gave a deep sigh. He was clearly becoming too old for his position. "Well, now we have two separate problems: the upcoming invasion and Sasuke. As for now all I can think of is installing more patrols around the gates to watch for any suspicious movement but I can't do much else without alerting that we know what he is doing. Therefore, I am appointing you, Kenshin, to go recruit anyone you deem necessary to help us counter this threat. I may not be able to act in the open but someone who has just joined our ranks may be able to find enough people to counter this. I give you the rights to do anything necessary. As for Sasuke, this is quite disturbing. We can't allow Orochimaru to get his hands on the Sharingan. I will be assigning two Anbu to shadow him to make sure he doesn't get into any trouble." Sarutobi gave another deep sigh. "Alright, you are dismissed."

**-Outside the Hokage's Tower-**

"Kin, I suggest you go back to the apartment. You should stay low until this has blown over." Kin nodded and walked back in the direction of the apartment. "Naruto, I'm going to follow her to make sure nothing happens to her. I will meet you at Training ground #11." Kenshin disappeared in s swirl of leaves and Naruto proceeded toward the grounds.

Naruto had arrived there and saw a figure standing next to several training posts. He walked up to the man and recognized him to the proctor of the preliminaries. "Hayate-sama, what are you doing here?"

Hayate turned around and addressed Naruto. "Your guardian, Kenshin, suggested that I come out and help with your training." He pulled out his sword that was strapped on his back. "He didn't elaborate other than the fact he needed a ninja that was proficient in kenjutusu and I was chosen by the Hokage. I think I know why I am here though." Kenshin chose to appear at this moment. "I see you have acquainted each other but now is the time for business. Naruto here has a moth and a half to prepare for the Finals and I want him to prepare him by improving his kenjutsu skills. Obviously as a ninja, normal swords skills won't be enough which is why I will be teaching the ancient art of Hiten-Mitsurugi-Ryu while Hayate you will be teaching him ninja skills that can be combined with swords."

Kenshin pulled out his own katana. "Now, let's begin with a skill assessment." Kenshin caught Hayate's eyes and he instantly understood. Naruto could only stare at the silent exchange before he quickly found himself on the defensive when Kenshin and Hayate attacked immediately. He tried his best to avoid or block their attacks but cuts in his shirt were evident after several minutes of being attacked.

Naruto gritted his teeth and thought of a way to be able to fight both at once. He instantly realized what he could do to even the odds and crossed his fingers in a cross shape. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!!" A clone of Naruto appeared next to him and he commanded it to engage Hayate. Naruto himself went to engage Kenshin went he was able to hold his own for a few more minutes before he was disarmed and his clone was dispelled by Hayate's Crescent Moon attack. (AN: Not sure is that if that is the attack name, but whatever)

"Well, years of traveling with me has rubbed off of me and you have shown parts of Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryu in your sword style. Naruto, I want you to make a clone and Hayate will teach that one while I have you." Naruto made another clone and he sent it with Hayate.

This process went on for a large portion of the day and stopped when the sun started to disappear into the horizon. Kenshin and Hayate had finished their respective lessons for the day and were now convening at a local bar, talking about Naruto and his skills. They both had ordered something light to drink when a certain lavender fishnet wearing women came stumbling into the bar. Kenshin made to stand up and assist Anko when Hayate grabbed his arm and made a face that clearly said 'you don't want to get involved' and Kenshin slowly sat down again.

Anko sat down at the bar, with a morose expression on her face, and ordered a rather large bottle of sake and started to pour herself glass after glass of sake. "I can't let someone drink away at whatever is bothering them, Hayate. I am going to have to cut our chat short this time."

"I understand. It's about time for me to be getting home anyways. I'll see you tomorrow." Hayate left some bills on the counter while Kenshin walked over to Anko.

Anko was in the process of pouring herself another glass when she felt the bottle being pulled away from her hand. She whirled around and was ready to stand the culprit in the face when her hand was caught. "Who the hell do you think you are stealing my-?" Anko caught sight of Kenshin's face and it had a look of light concern.

"I believe you have had enough to drink for tonight." Kenshin drank the rest of the sake in the bottle and placed it on the counter. "Come on, let's go get some air." He grabbed Anko's hand and she blushed at the close contact.

**-Several minutes later, on a park bench-**

Kenshin was staring at the stars while Anko was trying to figure out her feelings for Kenshin. "God damn you….."

Kenshin looked at Anko. "Oro?"

Anko was now standing up and pointing an accusing finger at Kenshin. "Why the hell do you care so much?"

Kenshin could give her a confused face. "What do you mean, Anko-dono?"

Anko at that moment exploded in his face. "WHY DO YOU HAVE TO CARE ABOUT ME? WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE TO DEAL WITH MY OWN PROBLEMS?

"One does not need a reason to help someone in need. Or would rather not want my help?" replied Kenshin in a calm tone.

Anko's eyes flashed in anger and she gave him a hard punch to the face, leaving him whirly-eyed and a large bruise on his face. She disappeared and found herself walking back on the streets and leaned up against a wall to calm her emotions. Just then, several drunken chunnin and jounin were walking down the same street and they all eyed Anko at the same time with lecherous grins. They sauntered up to Anko and one spoke up. "Hey there, sweet thing. How would you like to entertain me and my friends?"

Anko glared at them and spat in the speaker's face. "Get away from me…"

The speaker forcefully grabbed Anko and pushed up against the wall. "You're going to regret ever saying that." The group pushed down on her, grabbing her chest and starting to remove her clothes. _'Why the hell am I so weak right now? I would normally be able to fight off creep like these guys' _She was broken out her thoughts when there was a large crack and she opened her eyes.

What she saw what probably the most intimidating expression someone could have on their face and on the face of Kenshin. "I suggest you leave Anko-dono alone if you don't want to end in the hospital or your deathbed."

"Like we are going to listen to you, bastard. We have you outnumbered." They charged him with kunai in hand.

"So be it, then." Kenshin unsheathed his katana and quickly cut the first man across the chest, leaving a thin trial of blood. He quickly spun around and hit the second man square in the head with his sheath, knocking him out cold. He charged the next person and rammed the hilt of his sword into the target's throat; making him cough up blood and making him pass out. The 'leader' of the group started to run away when his group had been decimated in several seconds, which Kenshin noticed immediately. He sheathed his sword and spun in place. "Hiten-Mitsurugi-Ryu: Hiryusen!!" The sword hit the man in the back of the head, making him fall face forward into the dirt.

Kenshin turned over to Anko, who stiffened under his gaze. "Now time for you to get your punishment for punching me in the face and giving this bruise." Kenshin pulled back his fist and Anko closed her before the impact on her face. After waiting several seconds and not feeling any pain, she opened up her eyes and saw Kenshin's face several inches way from her own and Kenshin gave her a small kiss on the forehead. "Just remember that you are never alone." Kenshin left a bewildered Anko sitting on the ground, wondering what to do. She picked herself up off the ground and gave one of the downed ninja a kick on the head to relieve her frustrations before she went to her home.

-**Next day, with Anko and Kurenai-**

Anko and Kurenai were having a lunch together and Kurenai had noticed that Anko was acting much more subdued than normal.

"Something wrong, Anko? You aren't as talkative as usual."

Anko looked up from her plate of food. "I'm not feeling very hungry."

Kurenai put a hand on Anko's forehead. "You feeling okay? Are you getting sick or something?"

Anko brushed away her hand. "I told you I'm feeling fine." She turned away from Kurenai and gave a deep sigh.

Kurenai instantly recognized the symptoms. "Someone is in love."

Anko whirled around in her seat with a red face. "I am not in love!!"

"Your face and reaction to my statement tell me otherwise." Kurenai leaned forward. "So, who is it?"

Anko looked embarrassed and leaned forward to whisper into her ear. She pulled away from Kurenai, with a dark blush on her cheeks.

"Isn't he the new jounin that was promoted by the Hokage and the one that proctored the second exam with you?" Anko nodded. "Why him?"

Anko countered with another question. "So, how is it between you and Asuma? Kurenai was taking a drink from her glass when she sputtered and spit out water. "What are you talking about?" Their conversation continued for quite a while.

**-Three weeks later, during a nightly patrol-**

Hayate and Kenshin were patrolling the city at night and discussing Naruto's tremendous progress in his training. Naruto has grasped almost all the moves of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu and Battojutsu, and has also learned many of techniques under Hayate's training. They had decided to split apart to be able to patrol faster and cover more ground. Hayate was passing by an area when he heard talking. He snuck up as close as possible and was able to identify two people, the Sand jounin and the leaf genin that had dropped out of the Genin Exams during the preliminaries. They were talking about a weapon that would used to bring about the destruction of Konoha and when he heard that, he immediately bolted to try and to report it to the Hokage.

He was jumping from building to building when he felt he was being followed. He turned around and saw that the sand jounin was following him and decided to attack first. "Dance of the Crescent Moon!!" He had struck him in the top of his shoulder but his blade hadn't penetrated the flak jacket the jounin was wearing.

The jounin had smirked and prepared a jutsu in his hand and Hayate could only watch as the hand moved toward him and started to rip him apart.

**-Meanwhile with Garra-**

Garra was staring at the moon when he felt another intrusive presence approaching and he started to mutter to himself again saying something that mother would be satisfied again.

"The moon is certainly beautiful tonight, isn't it?" said a cloaked figure from behind Gaara.

"Yes, it does…now DIE!!" Garra commanded a large wave of sand to go engulf the hapless victim when a circular dome of red charka surrounded the figure and pushed the sand away. Gaara looked in disbelief as his sand was pushed back and decided to attack in a different manner. He formed his charka around him and they formed into whips and he sent them at the cloaked figure but to no avail when the whips were dissolved once again by the red dome of charka. Gaara grew angrier by the second and summoned all his sand around him. He made the sand surround the figure and declared, "Sand Burial!" The sand compressed down but the red charka exploded outward in a wave of heat and all of Gaara's sand was turned into glass. The figure punched the glass dome around him and shattered it.

"Are you done trying to kill me? Because I'm not here to fight you." The cloaked figure took off his hood to reveal Naruto with fox ears.

"You again….mother will enjoy tasting your blood!!" Gaara started to form sand around himself making a sand-like claw for himself. He lashed out at Naruto but Naruto had already moved behind him and grabbed him.

"Not today, my friend." Naruto placed a seal onto Gaara's head and the seal glowed, temporarily sealing Gaara's charka. Gaara ripped the seal off of his head and try to mold some of his charka but to no avail. He stumbled a few steps away from Naruto and got into a feeble fighting stance. "What did you do to me?"

"I sealed away you charka, both normal and demon. I think its time to have a chat with your inner demon." He dashed up to Gaara's and grabbed his head. Gaara could only see fox irises in Naruto's eyes before he felt his mind being pulled somewhere.

-**In Gaara's mindscape-**

**Naruto and Kyubbi in her human form were wondering around in the mostly empty halls of Gaara's mind. **

"**Kyubbi, his mind is surprisingly quiet for someone who is quite insane."**

**Kyubbi looked carefully around. 'The boy has isolated himself away from people and he is socially inept. Having an insane demon in your head isn't exactly the best way to grow up. I had heard rumors when I was still free that Shukaku had been sealed into a boy to make a living weapon and I suppose this is the result.' Just then, they heard a distant feral roar coming from farther down the hall. 'Well, I believe it's time for us to meet our demon friend.'**

**They walked into a large room that looked like a giant stone cave and the bars that were keeping Shakaku in were battered and looked like they were to break soon.**

'**Shukaku, it's been too long.' **

**A large figured loomed from behind the bars and it came up close. "Who is disturbing me right now?" Shukaku stared down at Naruto and Kyubbi. 'I see it's you, Kyubbi. But I don't recognize the other one.'**

'**This boy is my container.' **

**Shukaku laughed out loud. 'So the mighty Kyubbi has submitted to a human and to a brat.'**

**Kyubbi gave a hard glare back. 'At least my container has the ability to wipe the floor of yours without breaking a sweat. But I'm not here to fight or argue with you, my container and I are here to discuss your influence on your container.'**

**Shukaku roared at Kyubbi. 'You come in here, insult me and expect me to listen to whatever you are going to say?' **

"**We are going to talk weather you like it or not, Shukaku." Kyubbi and Shukaku continued to exchange various insults and comments back and forth until Naruto stepped in. **

"**Will you two shut up?! Kyubbi, I think you are losing sight about what we came here to do." Shukaku had a look of fury of his face and Kyubbi looked sheepish for getting into an argument. "Look, Shukaku, I know that you want to survive and live as long as possible, correct? If so, will you allow someone to fix the seal on Gaara?"**

'**Why would I want to ever want to follow your directions? I am on the brink or breaking him and you want me to submit to this new seal that will put him in control? Why would I ever accept that offer?'**

**A new voice spoke up. "No, I'm tired of this. I heard what Naruto has said." All heads turned to the voice and it was Gaara. "No more. I'm tired of killing for my "existence. You have made me the scourge of the village and even my own brother and sister are unable to look at with me without fear. If sealing you up means being able to walk around without being feared and sleep with your voice whispering words of death in my ear, I will gladly take it. " **

**Shukaku started to panic. 'You can't hurt yourself; my sand will protect you no matter what.'**

"**Your charka isn't limitless and there are other ways to kill people than by weapons." **

**Shukaku realized at the moment that Gaara's resolve could not be broken. 'Fine, but you just watch. One day, that boy is going to betray you and you are going to come running back to me for power.' Shukaku receded back into the shadows of his cage. **

"**Come on, Kyubbi. Our job is done here."**

**-Outside in the Real World-**

"So, Gaara, ready to get your seal fixed?" Naruto offered a hand to Gaara.

Gaara took it and asked, "So, how are we going to fix my seal?"

"We are going to the man known as the God of Shinobi." (AN: That is what he is called, right?)

-**In the Hokage's office-**

Sarutobi was currently finishing the last few pages of paperwork on his table and was ready to take a long smoke from his pipe when Naruto, with his hood and cloak hiding his fox features, appeared with whom he recognized as one of the genin from Sand. "Naruto, to what do I owe this pleasure and why have you brought one of the Sand genin with you? You know of what is happening."

"I understand but this is someone I believe we can bring over to our side without a fight."

"I see. Okay then, what do you need?"

"I need you to fix the seal on Gaara, who is the container of the one tailed demon, Shukaku."

Sarutobi's eyes immediately showed understanding "Why does his seal need to be fixed?"

"Whoever had applied the seal long ago did an extremely poor job at it. It has allowed his demon to have more influence over him than it should and it has clearly affected his state of mind. I hope you would be able to take some time out of your schedule to help him."

Sarutobi gave a nod. "Gaara, can you show your seal mark?"

Gaara removed his shirt and turned around, showing a seal that was above his left shoulder blade. Sarutobi stood up from his desk and walked over to Gaara, closely examining the seal. He examined for several minutes before speaking up. "It's seems you were right, Naruto. His seal is poorly place and has many weak points in it. Come back tomorrow Gaara and I will fix the seal for you." Gaara nodded minutely and left the room in silence. Naruto was about to follow suit when Sarutobi spoke up. "Naruto, I'm sorry to say but tonight one of you teachers was attacked."

"What are you talking about?"

"It seems that Hayate was patrolling when he was attacked by someone. He was rescued by Kenshin but that I have been able to surmise from the situation. I can't really do anything because it could compromise our knowledge of the upcoming invasion of Sound."

"I understand, Hokage-sama." Naruto left the office with his head hanging down.

-**Next Morning-**

Naruto had left early to walk over to the hospital to find out what has happened with Hayate and Kenshin. He spoke with a hospital attendant asked where Hayate was being held. He walked to the room and when he walked in, he saw Kenshin talking to what seemed like an Anbu with long purple hair. The Anbu saw Naruto and said her thanks to Kenshin before disappearing off. Hayate was on the bed with a large amount of bandages on his chest, starting from left hip all the way up to almost his right shoulder. "What happened to him, Kenshin?"

Kenshin gave him a sad face. "Something that could have been easily avoided if we had stayed together. We had split apart to patrol more ground and I was only able to stop Hayate's death after I saw that he was being pursued. His opponent had blocked his Crescent Blade and seemed to have a jutsu made of wind, ready to finish him off. I was able to strike his assailant before he could finish his kill. I could only knock him out from my position and I rushed here as quickly as I could with Hayate." He looked over Hayate. "It's seems I will be needing to go enlist the help of my old teacher. I have a rough knowledge on his whereabouts and I hope I will be able to enlist his aid before the start of the invasion. For now, you will need to train on your own unless you find someone willing to help you, alright?"

"I understand, Kenshin." Naruto left the room and left Kenshin to his own thoughts.

Naruto wondered around in the street, with no particular destination when he heard some quiet giggling. He looked up and saw himself near the local hot spring and a man with white hair was looking into a peephole while writing something quickly on a notepad. Naruto looked darkly at the man and quietly snuck up on the man. "PERVERT!!"

The old man jumped up in shock while the women currently in the hot spring were yelling and shouting to chase and beat the pervert down. The old man looked around to see who had blown his cover and was quickly surrounded by a mob of women, all with some sort of item to beat him with. He tried to quickly explain his situation but to no avail as he was quickly beat into submission.

-**Several pain-filled minutes later-**

The old man was laying on the ground, groaning in pain when Naruto walked up to him. "I guess it doesn't seems that women appreciate you peeping, old man."

The old man seemed to heal almost instantly when he heard old man. "I'm not just an old man. I am Mt.Myoboku-Gama's holy master Sennin, also known as the Toad Sennin, Jariya!!" He ended up in a odd pose and Naruto looked as him blankly.

"Are you one of the three legendary Sannin?"

Jariya puffed his chest out in pride. "Yes, I am."

"Can't believe one of the Sannin is a peeping tom and a pervert. What's next, one of the other Sannin is a traitor and the last, a heavy drinker and gambler?"

Jariya could look at the reality of what the boy had just said and scratch his head in shame. "Um kid, you hit the nail right on the head."

"Wait, I was right about what I said about the three Sennin?" (AU: Sannin is singular and sennin is plural?) Jariya could only nod his head and lower his head in shame.

Naruto looked sheepish. "I'm sorry. I didn't actually mean it."

Jariya looked at him somberly. "War does a lot of things to you, kid. A lot of things. What's your name, kid?"

"Naruto Himura Uzumaki."

_This is Minato's son? I wonder…_"Hey kid, how would you like to be trained by me?"

Naruto's eyebrows went up in a questioning manner. "Why would I want any training from you?"

"Because I know a ton of jutsus and I am one of the strongest people from Konoha. What do you say?"

"**What do you think, Kyubbi?"**

'**He was your father's sensei. He can expand your small collection of jutsus you know. Depending on your sword to win your battles won't help you all the time.'**

"**Okay then, Kyubbi." **"Okay, Jariya-sensei. Let's go to a training field and see what you can teach me."

Slightly longer this time though my update rate is totally erratic. -.- Anyways, Read and Review. Constructive Criticism is welcome but flames will be ignored. Try to add something helpful if you are going to review other that "awesome story" or "Update soon." Midterms are coming up and I have a whole bunch of essays to write so I'm not sure when the next update will come along. Until then, Peace out. b.d

Next Chapter: Training under Jiraya and Start of the Finals


	14. Finals

Thank you to everyone who clarified the 'sannin' and 'sennin' issue. Thanks for all the reviews though. I kind of find it hard to believe it has been a bout a year and a month since I started this fic. Sure, I revamped the whole thing but I'm happy on where it is today. I believe someone addressed that Naruto should be calling Jiriaya "ero-sennin" instead of sensei, do realize he has been raised by Kenshin who has a formal style of speech and isn't hasty to judge people right away.

Ch. 14

Naruto followed Jiriaya to a nearby training ground, near a waterfall. "So first things first, I going to test you on your chakra affinity, Naruto."

"Chakra affinity?"

"Yes. Each ninja has a certain affinity to the five main elements. Jiriaya pulled out a piece of paper from a pouch and gave it to Naruto. "This is a charka detecting paper. All you need to do is push a small amount of charka into it and your affinity will reveal itself."

Naruto held the small piece of paper in his hand. "How will I know which affinity I have?"

"Wind will split itself in half, Water will become wet, Fire will burn itself, Earth will crumble and Lightening will give off sparks."

Naruto pushed some chakra into the piece of paper and it split it self in half. The two halves floated to the ground. Jiraiya was about to tell Naruto about several wind jutsus he could teach him when one corner gave a small burst of flame, another became wet, another crumbled and the last gave a weak spark. _Interesting, the boy's dominant chakra is wind but have a weak affinity to the other four. I haven't seen someone like this since I trained Minato... Geez, this boy is like his father in so many ways. But I think I will focus on wind jutsus for now. _"Well, it seems that you have a knack for wind jutsus and I just happen to know some I can teach you." Jiraiya pulled out a scroll from another pocket in his clothes and gave it to Naruto. "In there contain several wind jutsus you can learn and I will help in any way I can if you have any questions."

Naruto took the scroll and looked at the several jutsus that had been recorded down. He looked up from his scroll and saw Jiraiya, looking through some brush and giggling. _I take my eyes off of him for two seconds and he is already peeping on other women. Stupid ero-sennin. _Naruto chuckled at his nickname for Jiraiya before walking up behind him to unleash a surprise on him. Kyubii was screaming bloody hell for him to not use the technique made so long ago to he would occasional use to disguise himself when walking by himself on the streets.

Jiraiya was busily writing down notes for his next book when he heard a sensual voice and a pair of soft hands rubbed down on his shoulders. He turned around to see what he could only describe as the one of the most perfect women he had ever seen in his life. A blonde-haired woman with red streaks in her hair stood before him. Thin wisps of smoke covered the most private parts from view and Jiraiya could feel himself drooling at the sight before him and he inched closer to feel up the perfect body.

There was a puff of smoke and Jiraiya suddenly felt cold steel on his throat. "Consider this a warning for the next time you decide to go peep on women while training me."

'**Naruto how dare you! You know I forbade you to ever use that technique again.'**

"_But it was the only way I could think to try that perverted old man away from the women to pay attention to me."_

**Kyubbi gave a deep growl. 'Fine, I will let you off easy this time but I'm still going to punish you, in a way that going to keep you up all night.' Kyubbi gave a low chuckle and Naruto could only shiver at what her punishment could be.**

Over the next several days, Naruto had mastered the several jutsus that Jiraiya had given to him but a certain dream from Kyubbi had been keeping from getting a full amount of rest. It involved a certain lavender girl in some rather vivid positions and actions that kept his mind in turmoil. He had requested from a Jiraiya a day to calm his mind and Jiraiya quickly agreed saying he had some "research" to conduct.

Naruto sat down on a bench in a park and leaned his head back trying to clear his head of everything that was happening and soon to be happening in the future, with the village and his relationship with a certain lavender-eyed girl. Hinata, who had just been released from the hospital, was taking a walk through the park to fill her lungs with fresh air after residing in the hospital. The preliminaries had proved to almost fatal as Neji had managed much damage to her internal organs. Several weeks and the doctors and nurses had proclaimed her healthy enough to leave the hospital and do some light training. She was deep in thought when she turned her head to the side and saw Naruto sitting on the bench, head leaned back and eyes closed. Hinata walked up to Naruto and sat down next to him. She tapped his right shoulder. "Naruto-kun, are you okay?"

Naruto opened up his eyes and looked at where the voice had come from. He looked at Hinata and quickly turned away with a fierce blush adorning his face. "I apologize, Hinata-chan, but I must be going." He gently removed her hand from his shoulder and walked away. Hinata looked hurt and walked away, with her head hanging down.

**-At the Hyuuga Manor-**

Hiashi was currently walking through his house and passed by the courtyard just to see Hinata as she was walking into the manor with her head hung low. Hiashi called to his daughter but his calls fell on deaf ears. His eyes narrowed and wondered about the times Hinata had ever been unhappy enough to not hear his summons. The only time was when his wife and her mother had died during childbirth of Hanabi. With concern lacing his face, he quickly moved to discover his daughter's distress.

**-Hinata's Room-**

She was lying facedown on her pillow and was staring listlessly at the wall when she heard a small knock on her door. She stood and slid open her door a small crack and looked out. "Yes, Father?"

"Is something the matter, Hinata?"

"I apologize, Father, but I do not feel like talking right now." She slid the door shut and left Hiashi in a state of confusion and anger as to who could upset Hinata this much. He knew he hadn't been the cause and no other clan member has seen Hinata yet. He let out a low growl and muttered, "Naruto…" He set off on a brisk pace to find Naruto and bring him to justice.

-**In a Training Ground-**

Naruto currently sat quietly in the ground, cross-legged and was chanting a single phrase when a furious Hiashi burst out of the trees and advanced on him with eyes blazing. Hiashi rushed up to him and pinned him down on the ground by his throat. "What did you do to my daughter?"

Naruto gripped at Hiashi's hand and tried to pry it off to no avail. He moved his hand down to the hilt of his sword and rammed it into Hiashi's right armpit, breaking his grip and numbing his arm.

"Hiashi-sama, I haven't done anything to Hinata!!!"

"Then explain to me why she is currently in her room moping around? The last I had seen her like this was when her mother had died. Nothing I or the clan could do to break her out of her misery for several days until I forced her out of her room, which I regret. But I had a duty to my clan and it is clear now I wasn't thinking at that moment because it made her skills collapse and brought my own fury on her. But here came a certain young boy who had encouraged her to become stronger than I could have done. You are the only other person I know that can influence into such a state and I demand to know what you did to her!!!"

Naruto tried to rack his head to figure out what he had done and quickly found what he had done. He was about to tell Hiashi he was wrong when it hit him. He body quickly slackened and he fell to the ground. Hr took several deep breaths to calm himself down and righted himself up. "I apologize for Hiashi-sama, but I must leave." He gave a quick bow before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Hiashi could only give a hard glare at where Naruto had just been. "For your sake, Naruto, I hope you do."

**The Eve of the Finals**

Hinata was starting out at a full moon, rubbing the fur on Shiro's back when he darted off and she heard a flute being played. (AU: Shiro is the name of the small fox that Naruto had summoned but stayed with Hinata. Hinata named it that.) She looked out her window and spied a certain blonde-haired boy of her affection under the affect of the full moon. She walked over to Naruto and put a hand up on his cheek and he brought up his hand to meet hers. "I'm sorry, Hinata."

Hinata looked confused and was about to ask what happened when Naruto put a finger on her lip. "I pushed you away and without any regard to your feelings. My mind was in a great storm and wasn't thinking clearly about what was happening. I apologize for my coldness to you that day and-" He was suddenly cut off when he felt Hinata's lips press up against his own.

Hinata pulled back and whispered in his ear. "All is forgiven, Naruto-kun." She pulled back and asked, "What is with the cute fox ears and tail?"

Naruto looked flustered and tried to stutter out a response. Hinata giggled in response before moving her hand and scratching the back of Naruto's ear. His face instantly relaxed and he leaned into Hinata's hand, muttering several inaudible statements that Hinata couldn't make out. She stopped her scratching and pulled Naruto into a fierce hug and Naruto wrapped his arms around, wishing he could never let go. Later that night, a certain clan head getting a glass of water saw the jinchuuriki of the village with his arms wrapped protectively around his daughter who was snuggling into his chest and they were talking about things he couldn't decipher. He decided to not raise the alarm and would get back at that boy at a different time.

**Dawn of the Finals**

Several people were staring at the rising sun and were thinking various thoughts.

'_Today is the day…'_

'…_when I get my revenge…'_

'…_destiny will prove me to be the victor…'_

'…_I need to hurry back…' _

And a certain blonde haired boy was standing on top of the Hokage Monument, staring down at the village. _'Today is the day…'_

**At the Stadium**

People were filing into the stadium and all of the contestants were lined up and Naruto did a quick look over his opponents. Neji had a smirk that made him look like he was king of the world, Gaara looked at him directly and gave a small nod of thanks, which relieved Naruto that Gaara would follow Leaf's plan to defend the village. Naruto had received a scroll telling him all the plans prior before coming to the stadium and found them adequate but had a nagging feeling that something would not go as planned. Shino was as stoic as ever while Kankuro and Temari looked apprehensive as he surmised would be about the upcoming invasion. Shikamaru clearly had a face that showed he would rather be some where else. Sasuke had not yet shown up and Naruto had an odd suspicion it had something to do with Kakashi.

The proctor was a jounin who was chewing on a senbon. "Listen here. The battles will go in numerical order. The matches end when one person concedes defeat or when I call the match. The rest of you will wait up in that area over there." The all gave some from of consent and they walked up to the competitors box while Neji and Naruto remained on down on the field, staring down each other.

Neji was the first to speak. "What are you even here, loser? Fate has already proclaimed me the winner."

"I made a promise to Hinata and I intend to go through with it. I never go back on my promises."

"A promise to that main house failure? She was destined to a life of failure and her defeat by mind hands was a perfect show of that." Naruto's response was to summon a bow out of a scroll and readied an arrow.

Genma looked at both of them. "Hajime!"

Naruto jumped back and released the arrow he had ready and Neji broke it in half with a swift chop. Naruto shot several more arrows which were disposed in the same manner as the first. Naruto darted up the wall of the arena where he stuck there and contemplated his next move. Neji, becoming impatient, threw several shuriken at Naruto which he deflected his bow.

"Let's test you Neji." He lobbed an arrow high into the air and all eyes followed its path. "Ya Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" (Arrow shadow clone jutsu) The single arrow multiplied into several hundred and rained down upon Neji.

"KAITEN!!!" Neji started to spin around while expelling charka from his tenketsu points, creating a sphere of charka around him. Many of the arrows were either deflected or broke when the came in contact with Neji's Kaiten. Neji stopped spinning and looked at Naruto with a smirk that said he was destined to win the match. "It seems that your arrows have not effect."

"I can see that, Neji-san." Naruto laid his bow down on the ground and brandished his sword. "Then, let's try this." He struck the ground with his sword. "Doryusen!!!" (Ground Dragon Strike) Neji performed Kaiten once again and deflected the rocks. "So, mass doesn't matter either."

Naruto crouched down and put his right hand around the hilt of his sakabato and his left hand holding the sheath. They both stood at stared each other down for a few second before dashing toward each other. Naruto pulled out his sakabato out of the sheath and aimed for Neji's head, who was only able to dodge by a hair's breadth butt still lost several strands of hair. Neji had jumped back form the attack and growled at Naruto before dashing back at Naruto. The exchange of sword blows and Juuken strikes continued for several minutes without either person gaining an upper hand until Naruto had over extended one of his attack and had left his right side exposed. Neji recognized the opening immediately and slammed his palms into Naruto's side pushing him away and leaving two charka marks on his side.

Naruto could only gasp in pain and heard Neji say 'You are in range of my Hakke'

"2 palms!" "4 palms!" "8 palms!" "16 palms!" "32 palms!" "64 palms!!!"

He flew back and landed in a heap several yards away, with all of his charka points closed.

"Proctor, call the match. He won't be getting back up." Neji turned away but was stopped by a voice.

"Where are you going, Neji? This battle is far from over." Neji whirled around and saw Naruto hunched over with his sword stuck in the ground getting him standing up.

"_**Kyubbi, I need to heal my ribs and also open up my charka points, but do it without any noticeable charka surges." **_

"_**Kit, must you make this difficult? I'll will do it but you are going to need to buy yourself time while I heal you. Think you can do it?"**_

"_**I think I can."**_

"Fool, why do you still stand up? You are destined to fail like the Hyugga main house failure. Her defeat at my hands shows how weak the main house truly is. The main house deserves to suffer after everything they have done to me…"

Naruto had expected the response that Neji after his life story from Hiashi. "Well so what, you lose your father and you grow bitter against the world and take your anger out on the Main House?"

Neji ripped off his headband and showed the curse seal mark on his forehead. "You have no idea what it is like to be branded with curse seal and never be free from it!!!"

Naruto could feel his ribs healing and almost of his charka points being unsealed. "Are you sure about that Neji? You aren't the only who has to suffer in this world. Just because you have one problem, you feel the need to blame other for your own destiny. Tell me, for attacking Hinata-chan to a state of near death when you are supposed to protect her, are you not going against you own destiny?" He shot a glare at Neji and Neji recoiled when he saw that Naruto's pupils had turned into slits.

Neji recovered from his shock. "It doesn't matter. Destiny has already still declared the loser today." Neji dashed forward and was about to strike Naruto square in the heart with a Juuken strike when he was blasted away by a large wall of charka. Neji tried to look at Naruto but the charka emanating off of him was too much and he had to turn off his Byakugan temporarily. When the charka had settled down, Neji and the crowd could only gasp at Naruto.

A thin shroud of red charka surrounded his form and is seemed to also give him a fox tail and fox ears though they were not definite. Naruto glanced over at Neji before disappearing. Neji jumped back to avoid a slash by Naruto before whirling around to strike at Naruto only to hit an afterimage. "Impossible! All of your charka points should be sealed."

"I trained with a Hyuuga for longer than you know and you don't think I would know of a way to be able to open my charka points? And you might want to look up" Neji looked up and saw Naruto descending on to him when he quickly performed Kaiten. Naruto hit the shield and was quickly repelled. He hit the ground hard and rolled several feet on the ground.

"You still have not penetrated my ultimate defense, loser."

"Is that so? How about we put that to the test?" Naruto got up and jumped into the sky, with sword back in its sheath. "I will meet your destiny head on and I will win." Naruto came down while Neji started his Kaiten again. Naruto's charka covered sakabato impacted with Neji's Kaiten and neither gave leeway from one another for several seconds until Neji's Kaiten started to give in and it broke, completely taking the entire crowd by surprise, mainly the Hyuuga clan.

Naruto followed through with the sword's momentum and it impacted with Neji's temple, sending him several yards away. Neji got up and was shocked his couldn't see anything. He tried to activate his Byakugan but achieved nothing as he was still unable to see anything. "How does it feel to be blind, Neji?" Neji looked around trying to locate Naruto's voice and couldn't pinpoint the location. "For a proclaimed prodigy and genius, you are blinded by your so called fate and destiny. Therefore, maybe being blind will open up your eyes."

"How dare you do something like this to me!!! I am a Hyuuga and a genius and I see all!"

"Then how are you unable to see the truth of what Hinata was saying to you? You have been blinded by your anger and hatred of the Main House and you are not deserving of such eyes!!"

"Because she is a Main House brat who doesn't even know her place in the world." He got up again after locating Naruto's voice and dashed at Naruto with a glowing hand. Naruto, who was caught off guard, was unable to defend himself when he was hit by a charka palm in the chest only to disappear in a puff of smoke. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?" He whirled around only to have a fist impact with his chin and he went flying back. He fell on the ground and tried to move but his body would not respond. He could only look up and see Naruto standing over him. "Why did you not defeat outright?"

"Because if I did, Hinata would lose someone she has cared about for a long time. I had intended to defeat you as quickly and painfully as possible but Hinata eased my mind on that subject. Hinata cares more than you think about you and you should at least try to know her again."

"The winner of the first match is, Uzumaki Naruto!"

A pair of medics came out to assist Neji, while Naruto went to go retrieve his bow that he had set down. The crowd was cheering for him and he looked sheepish. He caught Hinata's eye sitting in the crowd and gave her a small wink that made her blush.

"Will Sasuke and Gaara please come down to the arena." Gaara passed by Naruto as he walked down the steps and they both made eye contact, giving a small nod to each other. Gaara waited patiently and was making small sculptures of sand in his hand, which worried Temari, Kankuro and Baki. They had never seen Gaara doing such things in his spare time and it made them slightly nervous to see him so relaxed and wondered if this would affect their invasion plans.

"If Sasuke does not appear in the arena in the next minute, you will be automatically disqualified."

The Kazekage turned over to Sarutobi. "Why not delay the Sasuke and Garra match? Many of the lords present today are waiting to see the last Uchiha in combat. Many of them would be disappointed if they are unable to see such a spectacle." Sarutobi could only grimace at what the Kazekage had said and thought for several moments on his next course of action. "The match between Gaara and Sasuke will be postponed for the final match of this round." There was a large roar of disapproval as people voiced their opinion on wanting to see the Uchiha in action. Gaara shrugged his shoulders and walked back up the stairs into the waiting area, receiving odd looks from Temari and Kankuro. Gaara, noticing their looks "What?"

Both looked hastily away but thinking the same thought. _What is wrong with him? _They had observed his odd behavior for some time and they thought it was just something that would eventually blow by but it hadn't. Not that they didn't mind not hearing the constant threats on their lives, but this Gaara made them nervous in a different way.

"Will Kankuro and Shino Aburame, please come down to the arena to start their fight."

Kankuro quickly surrendered without a fight which made a certain Aburame irate and his Kikai colony could sense his simmering anger. "Will Temari and Shikamaru Nara, please come down to start their fight." Temari floated down on her fan and was waiting impatiently for Shikamaru to come down.

"Man this is so troublesome. I had to fight a girl in the preliminaries and now I have to fight another one. Why does life have to be such a drag? Maybe I should forfeit too, seeing as the crowd doesn't want to see my fight anyways." He felt a sword being poked into his back and he fell forward over the rail and onto the ground. "Geez, Naruto. Thanks a lot."

He looked over the rail and waved at Shikamaru. "No problem, Shikamaru." Naruto was glad he had pushed Shikamaru over the rail because he was able to see a sleeping genius flaunt his mental superiority and tactical genius to a near victory only to give up due to a lack of charka. Needless, to say his opponent was not satisfied with her victory and kept glaring at Shikamaru although Naruto could of sworn it was for a different reason other than being mad at Shikamaru.

Naruto had decided to leave at this moment, explaining he had some business to attend to after being asked whether he was going to stay behind to watch the final match. "No matter who win, I expect both of them to fight to their best, though I don't think they will be able to finish." Kankuro and Temari looked at each other again and wondered if Naruto was on to their plans.

At that moment, Sasuke and Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves. "Sorry, we're late. I got held up by my Sensei. He said something about making a dramatic appearance." The entire crowd face planted but excited to see the last Uchiha.

"Next time, could you actually appear on time?" Genma shot a glare at Kakashi who looked away. "Any who let the final match in the first round between Gaara and Sasuke begin." Sasuke got down into a taijutsu stance and had expected Gaara to stand there with his arms crossed only to see Gaara drop into a basic taijutsu stance, which surprised the Sand shinobi present greatly. "Hajime!"

Sasuke darted forward only to quickly jump to the side as a fist of sand had come out to hit him. He looked at Gaara to see his own fist extended before he returned back to his own stance, the sand receding back. Sasuke gritted his teeth and jumped at Garra again. Garra threw another punch but his attack only hit air. He felt the sand moving to defend him and it only barely blocked Sasuke's kick before he moved again to attack Garra's front.

Garra quickly expelled the sand off his body like a shield, pushing Sasuke away. He quickly gathered his sand around him again and formed it into a solid shield of sand and he sat inside quickly thinking of what to do to be able to defeat Sasuke. Outside the sand ball, Sasuke was furiously attacking hoping to break through and went it seemed pointless to continue, Sasuke jumped back on to the stadium wall. He crouched down and held his arm out and soon the crackling of lightening could be heard as it started to gather around his hand. He dashed down the wall and ran straight toward moving at a very high speed. He thrust his arm out and impacted with the sand shield. He felt his arm move into the ball but was quickly pulled out as spikes jutted out of the sand, almost impaling him.

A scream was heard from within the shield that was heard all around the stadium. "What is this? Is this my blood?" Another blood curdling scream was heard when everything started to happen.

**Prior and during Sasuke and Garra's match**

"That is the plan. Any questions?" No one raised their voice. "Alright, then. For Konoha, let's go!" Everyone disappeared in a large swirl of leaves and soon the Battle for Konoha would begin.

Hello again fellow readers. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Please review as they do help get insight on what to write next and they also motivate me. I'm also done with school for fall semester so I may be able to get at least 2 chapters in a month. Well, until next time, Peace out.

Author's Rant: Just recently I realized one of the reasons I decided to write a Naruto story with a Ruronin Kenshin crossover. Many Naruto stories that use swords take a style of sword fighting, mainly Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu, and they don't give credit to Ruronin Kenshin for that sword style or least I'm not aware of. Anyways, enjoy reading.

**Also, looking for a beta reader if anyone is interested. **

**Next Chapter: Invasion of Konoha**


	15. Invasion of the Leaf

Ch.15

Invasion of the Leaf

The Kazekage gave a quick signal and soon a large numbers of feathers fell upon the spectators and most were put to sleep instantly. Most of the jounin in the stands were able to detect the genjutsu and instantly dispelled and were immediately under attack but a large number of ninja wearing a headband with a musical note on it.

Baki landed next to Gaara, with Temari and Kankuro in tow. "Temari, Kankuro, you need to get Gaara out of here while he recovers from that attack." Temari and Kankuro both nodded and hoisted Gaara onto their shoulders and jumped off. Sasuke, who had temporarily been shocked, quickly jumped off after them.

**Within the Stands**

Hinata had quickly seen through the genjutsu and was in the process of waking the other genin that could help. Soon, she had Sakura, Ino, Chouji, Shino and Kiba awake. "You guys, I think we are under attack by a foreign village. We need to go help the civilians throughout the village escape."

"Where are we supposed to bring them?" asked a frazzled Sakura. A Sound ninja snuck up behind Ino and was about to stab her in the head when a kunai flew straight into the ninja forehead. Kakashi landed next to them. "There are several passages that lead into the Hokage Mountain. Hinata should be able to locate them with her Byakugan. Try to escort as many civilians as possible and stick together." Kakashi jumped back into the fray dispatching a Sound ninja with a quick slash to the chest.

The genin stood there looking at Kakashi when Hinata brought them back to the situation. "Snap out of it. We have a mission to do. Kiba, Shino and I will find any civilians will our abilities. Sakura, Ino and Chouji, you will keep the civilians safe until we are able to move to the safe houses." Everyone present nodded and they quickly set off.

**Along the Wall**

The Sound ninja kneeling around a circle quickly made their hand signs and slammed their palms along the circle. A great screech was heard and a giant three-headed snake summon appeared out the smoke and immediately attacked the wall, making a large gap for enemies to enter. The ninja elated by the summoning failed to notice a red streak of hair bypass them and a large figure behind their positions.

"Kenshin said these enemies would be strong yet they all look weaker than he was when he was younger. No matter, I promised I would help him and help I shall." He darted forward and quickly dispatched the first person he saw. The enemy turned around to one of their own fall to an unknown opponent who was wearing a large cloak. They all pulled out kunai and jumped at him, hoping to finish him off in one strike. "That's right, come at me and see if you can take me down." He jumped at them, knowing full the result of his battle.

**In the village**

Naruto had just knocked out a Sand ninja when he saw Temari and Kankuro carrying Gaara jumping above him. _What in the world?_ He then saw Sasuke giving pursuit to the group. _This does not bode well._ "Haku. Do you think you will be able to hold this area without my help?"

"I should be able to Naruto."

"That's good to here. I leave this area to you then." Naruto jumped on top of the rooftops to give pursuit to Sasuke. A sound ninja jumped to intercept Naruto but had several senbon buried into his head and was dead before he even fell back down to the ground. The Sound and Sand ninja in the area were stopped by several mirrors of ice. A voice came out from them. "You will not pass this area." Haku's reflection appeared on the mirrors and soon a veritable hail of senbons flew at them, pinning them down with no escape.

**In the Konoha forest with Naruto**

_What happened to Gaara that he has to be helped by his siblings? And why is Sasuke chasing them? Grr, something must have happened to Gaara. And I am soon going to find out. _He jumped out of a tree and landed on a branch with Sasuke off to his right and Temari, Kankuro and Gaara to his left. Gaara was muttering random phrases while Temari, Kankuro and Sasuke were glaring daggers at each other.

Naruto jumped in between them. "Sasuke, stand down. Temari and Kankuro, give me-"Naruto was cut off when a crazed voice was head. "It's you... the boy who got me locked up…get over here so I can kill you!!!" Gaara jumped out of Temari's and Kankuro's arms and tackled Naruto, making them both fall from the tree. Naruto grappled with Gaara as they fell. He saw the ground approaching fast and replaced himself with a log while Gaara crashed in a great puff of sand. The sand then started gather around Gaara and it formed itself into a mini Shukaku around Gaara.

"Gaara, snap out of this. You're stronger than this!"

Gaara gave a laugh. "Gaara is not longer here. That fool was stupid enough to believe that some new seal would keep me locked up forever but he was wrong. All I needed to do what wait for the right moment to take over and now that I am out, nothing is going to stop me. Not even you, Kyubbi container." (AN: Gaara will be referred as Shukaku for the time being)

"We will see about that, Shukaku." Naruto jumped down at him but Shukaku had expected it. "Sand Shuriken!" Naruto was blasted back by a barrage of shuriken and his back slammed against a tree.

Naruto picked himself up and wiped away the blood that dripped out of his mouth. He put his hands into a cross seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!!!" 4 clones appeared next to Naruto and he nodded at each one. They all jumped at Shukaku from a different direction. Shukaku tried to target all at once but their movements were too fast for him to track. "NOW!" yelled one of the Narutos. One of the Narutos dashed at Shukaku and he lunged forward to strike him down, only for Naruto quickly spin around his attack. "Ryukansen!" Shukaku felt himself being launched forward when he saw another Naruto crouching low to the ground. "Ryushosen!" A crushing strike hit Shukaku under his chin and he flew up into the air. "Ryutsuisen!!" a harsh blow was struck on top of Shukaku head, sending him hurtling back down to the ground where he landed with a large thud. Shukaku got up slowly and there was a Naruto, ready to attack. "Ryusosen!!" Shukaku fell back from all of the constant hits only to spin around to see Naruto standing in his battojutsu stance. "Soryusen!" Naruto hit him square in the ribs, knocking Shukaku away and slamming him into a tree.

Kankuro and Temari were in shock of someone beating Gaara so quickly while Sasuke could only stare and quietly access the situation. Naruto walked up to Shukaku, who was leaning against the tree when he heard an evil cackle. "You think this is over, boy? This battle has only just begun." All the earth around started to shift under Naruto and sand started to seep out and surround Shukaku. "You will regret the day you ever tried to see me away, boy."

Naruto quickly shouted a warning to Sasuke and the Sand siblings. "Get out of here now!" They stood around looking confused. "I said; get away from this area unless you want to die!" These words seemed to affect them and they quickly moved away hoping to avoid what was going to happen.

The sand continued to pile on top of Shukaku until a large mass of sand was formed and a feral roar was unleashed from inside. A giant figure emerged from within the sand and soon Shukaku was back to his full size before he was sealed into Gaara. Naruto could only stare up at the imposing figure and only wonder how he was going to defeat such a monster.

Shukaku saw Naruto crouching on a tree and he laughed at him. "Not so tough now, are you?" He sent sand flying in Naruto's direction and it started to surround him. "Now, time for you to die!" All the sand around Naruto surrounded him in a cocoon and it compressed down, but before it could fully crush Naruto, a large cloud of smoke appeared and a loud howl was heard. A large fox, several stories tall and several tails swirling behind it, emerged from the cloud of smoke and Naruto clinging on the top of its head.

The fox looked up at Naruto. "My name in Jin-e. Who has summoned me here and for what reason?"

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I ask for your assistance in defeating Shukaku, the one-tailed demon."

"I understand, young one." He turned his attention to Shukaku and dashed forward.

Shukaku growled at the new obstacle in his way and suddenly puffed up. "Wind Bullet!" He shot out a large ball of condensed air and it was barely dodged by Jin-e. Naruto noted that Gaara was stuck on top of Shukaku's head. "Jin-e, do you think you will be able to get me close enough for me to be able to make contact with the person stuck on Shukaku's head?"

"It may be difficult with him attacking us from a range but I should be able to complete what you want." The giant fox wrapped his tails around several groves of trees and ripped them out of the ground and held them at ready. Jin-e bounded forward again and Shukaku was already prepared with another Wind Bullet which he shot at Jin-e. He threw the trees at the incoming Wind Bullet and a large smokescreen was created from the collision of two objects.

Shukaku peered at the smoke trying to see if their was anything hiding inside the smoke when Jin-e dashed out of the smoke and latched on to Shukaku, biting down on his neck and gouging his claws into Shukaku's arms. Naruto ran down Jin-e's head with a paper seal that he had been created with the help of Kyubbi's guidance and jumped at Gaara.

"Take this, Shukaku!" He slammed the seal on top of Gaara's head.

"NOOO! I just got out, too." Shukaku's form started to disintegrate and Gaara fell from his spot. Naruto jumped after him and caught him in his arms.

"It seems my job here is done. Until next time, young summoner." Jin-e disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto fell toward the trees and fell down toward a tree that had thick foliage, hoping it would hold the weight of two people. They landed roughly on the leaves, but the branches underneath held strong. The unconscious Gaara started to stir and he sat up rubbing his head.

"Well, seems I owe more thanks, Naruto."

"No need, Gaara. I did what I had to do to stop Shukaku and save you in the process. Nothing more and nothing less. Now, let's get down from here." Naruto offered a hand to Gaara who took it weakly and they proceeded down the tree.

**In the Village**

Hinata and the rest of the genin had managed to find some isolated villagers and had gathered them to a safe point to be moved toward the safe area. They had managed to gather up about ten people who had bee unaware of the attack and had lagged behind in the evacuations. They instantly set out toward the Hokage Mountain when they were spotted by a two Sound shinobi.

"Hey, you people! Stop right where you are!"

Hinata turned around and saw the two Sound ninja jumping after them. "Kiba, Shino, Ino, Sakura, take the villagers to the safe area. I will delay these two ninja."

"Hinata, that course of action could be a deadly one," Shino told quietly.

"Shino, our priorities are not our own safety but the safety of the villagers. And I am telling you to go without me!"

"How can you even think of leaving us behind while you are going to be fighting ninja that are stronger than you?" Kiba muttered.

"I expect you to trust in my abilities and my judgment. Now as a teammate and a friend, listen to me and go without me." Kiba and Shino obeyed Hinata' request but left grudgingly. The group of villagers was quickly escorted away.

The two ninja tried to catch up to the villagers when they were stopped when they had to evade several shuriken that could have killed them. Hinata had her Byakugan activated and was standing in the Jyuken stance.

The two Sound ninja jumped down with one in her front and one behind her. "Would you look at this man, the little kounichi thinks she can take down two jounin by herself. I say we have a little fun with here once we defeat her." Both ninja jumped at Hinata expecting to overwhelm her only to have several charka points closed. "Hmm, a Hyuuga, huh? Orochimaru has wanted to get his hands the Byakugan and just imagine what he will reward us with when we bring in a Hyugga to him."

Hinata bristled under their gazes and steeled herself. She waited a few seconds and when neither made a move, she dashed forward herself. One of the Sound ninja instantly swiped at her with a kunai, which she ducked under and instantly closed several tenketsu points on the ninja's arm.

He grasped his arm. "Gah, you stupid little bitch. I am going to get you for that." The Sound ninja rushed recklessly forward intent on rushing Hinata down. He aimed his kunai at Hinata's face and confidently yelled "Got you, bitch!"

Hinata gracefully stepped to the side while targeting the tenketsu around his legs and arms, making the ninja stumble forward and fall face first in the ground. Get up but Hinata aimed a kick at his face, knocking him out. _Alright, one down and one to go.' _Hinata looked around and found him hiding behind several walls. She quietly snuck over to Sound ninja position.

He peeked out past the wall he was hiding behind and saw that Hinata was no longer on the street. He felt slight vibrations coming from above though and looked up to see Hinata bearing down on him, with palms shining with charka. He barely jumped to the side back into the streets to avoid her attack, when her palms slammed against the ground.

"It seems I can't go easy on you, girl." He made a long string of hand seals. "Onpa Engi no Jutsu!" (Sound Wave Amplification technique- this is something I created) A large surge of air exploded from the ninja's body and Hinata noted a thin layer of charka residing in the air.

Hinata moved forward intent on not letting the ninja complete whatever he was going to try and do when she had a sudden bout of dizziness, which she fell to the ground on one knee to try and recover.

"How do you like the effects of my technique? Any movement anybody makes sends off sound waves, but in this area, I have made it into a weapon. With sound directly attacking your ears, I can throw off your equilibrium. Anything in about a 10 meter radius is my area of attack."

Hinata looked up at him. "Thanks for telling me that information." Hinata quickly stood up and ran to get out of the area.

"Not so fast!" The ninja clapped his hands and visible sound waves could be seen as they raced toward Hinata. Her eardrums took a violent lashing as she fell face first toward the ground well short of her target. She grasped her ears and tried to get rid of the ringing in her ears.

She felt herself being pulled by her legs into the air and was slammed rough against the ground on her left shoulder, which she has felt had fractured. She hoisted herself on her right arm when the ninja kicked her savagely in the stomach. She rolled on the ground and she tried to lift herself off the ground, she doubled over as she threw up the contents of her stomach. She rolled over to avoid falling over her own puke and stared blankly up at the sky when the Sound ninja entered her vision.

"So the Hyuuga bitch given up." He slammed his feet into her kneecap, breaking it and she wailed out in pain. "That's to stop you from running away." He pulled out a kunai and pinned Hinata down to the ground with a hand around her throat. "Now time, for me to have some fun, you little slut." He put the kunai at the neck of Hinata's jacket and pulled it down, cutting her jacket clean down the middle.

Hinata was gritted her teeth and started concentrated charka into her right hand. "Well, well, it seems the little girl is a lot more than she looks." The ninja looked at Hinata's body and licked his lips. HE brought his kunai down again to Hinata's shirt and was about halfway down when Hinata spoke up. "Not that you will ever get to see it!" Hinata slammed her charka infused hand in the ninja's forehead. The result was immediate as a liquid started to drip from the ninja's ears and he fell down to the ground dead. Hinata tried to focus her mind enough to be able to start moving again but her body would not respond. She lay futilely on the ground only to see more Sound ninja coming out of the corner of her vision. She succumbed to her injuries and failed to notice a stream of shruiken that flew toward the Sound ninja that killed them in their tracks.

**-Back outside along the wall-**

The last Sound ninja slid off of the stranger's sword and he swiped his sword in a downward motion to remove the blood from the sword. He observed that the snake has traveled about half a mile into the city, leaving a wide trail of destruction in its path.

He gave a confident smirk and gave chase to the rampaging snake. He ran for a minute before he had reached the tail of the snake when he jumped on and started to move up towards the head, leaving large slashes on its back, making it writhe in pain. This continued until he had reached the top of the head and positioned his sword to pierce the skull of the snake when he looked up to see a large object falling right down on top of him. He quickly jumped off the snake and dashed off to the side and barely dodged the large object had fallen down from the sky.

He angrily looked at what had fallen down on his kill and identified it as a very large toad. "Who the heck summons a giant toad to crush a giant snake?!?!"

A voice from behind him spoke. "That would be me. Do you have anything to say about it, stranger?"

"No other than the fact you stole a kill away from me. But I suppose summoning a giant toad to crush a giant snake would be the easy way out for someone who is weaker, and not a genius like me."

Jiraiya's right eye started to twitch in annoyance. He barely knew this person and already this man was annoying him. They made eye contact when they instantly jumped back into the fray, intent on showing the other up.

**-With** **Kenshin-**

Kenshin was bouncing along the walls of Konoha and had only reached up to the top of the building only to be stopped by several Anbu, who were kneeling outside the wall. "Don't touch the wall. Anything that comes in contact with it will instantly burn."

Kenshin walked closer and could make out Orochimaru and Sarutobi were fighting inside. He took out his sword and swung it against the wall of charka. It created a scraping noise but no visible damage was seen on the wall or Kenshin's sword. "It seems that this wall responds to things that are living or organic." He turned to the two Anbu waiting nearby. "I am going to try to disrupt this wall. I want you to try and capture the four people at the corners as they seem to be the ones maintaining this wall."

The Anbu readied themselves while Kenshin stood in his battojutsu stance and focused himself. "Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu: Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki!" The Anbu watching were unable to see the hit and the only result was a single line piercing through the wall and shattering the barrier. The four ninja at each corner was blown back from the charka from the sudden release of charka and Orochimaru could only hiss in displeasure as he saw the barrier disappear around him. He had the Third Hokage on the ropes and was about to finish him off right with his secret jutsu when the barrier had dropped throwing his attention from his hand signs thus failing to summon his targets.

Orochimaru was quickly going through his options when he was interrupted by a sword slash in which he jumped back to avoid. He looked at his new opponent and saw a pair of amber eyes glaring at him. "Be ready to die, snake."

"Not before I kill the old fool." He made a single hand gesture and his Kusanagi flew up off the ground and flew straight toward the Third Hokage. Kenshin saw the blade flying

through the air and jumped to catch it. He threw aside his own sword and caught Kusanagi inbetween his own hands.

Orochimaru hissed in annoyance at another failed attempt of killing his old sensei. "Sound 4, we are leaving." Only three figures jumped to side and he looked to see his fourth surbordinate held down by several Konoha Anbu. "Let's get out of here."

"But, Orochimaru-sama, what about-"

"I said we are leaving." The subordinate shut his mouth. Orochimaru and his subordinates jumped away and when an Anbu jumped up to give pursuit, one of them shot a net of a sticky substance out of his mouth and forced the Anbu back down to the ground.

Kenshin rushed over to the Third who was taking deep breaths and sweating a large amount. "Hokage-sama, are you okay?"

The Hokage looked up. "I'm fine, Kenshin." He gave a weak smile before passing out. Kenshin quickly lifted the Hokage onto his shoulders and attempted to move but found his movements very sluggish and his body unresponsive. _'What is wrong with me?'_

He realized his hands had been cut while catching Orochimaru's blade. _'Poison…' _That was his last thought before he too passed out.

……, I am ashamed of myself for taking so long to update. Anyways, review please. No flames, but constructive criticism is welcomed. Way behind schedule and I'm going back to school soon but I am going to try hard to update faster. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Until next time, Peace out.


	16. Notice

I am sorry to say but "The Way of the Sword and Shinobi" is going to have to be on hiatus and possibly closing down this story. I have hit a giant writer's block and its seems my motivation to write has waned for now. If anyone would like to adopt this story or know someone that would like to adopt it, please contact me and I will give the story to them. Whether or not, I will try to write again is still up in the air as I have numerous ideas to write but just not enough time. Thank you to everyone who stayed with my story and I am sorry for abandoning this story.


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